My Sweet Escape
by J for Jenny
Summary: The Kalderash gypsies plan to punish Jenny for making an abomination of their ancestors work. They do a spell to locate her soul and accidentally bring her back to life. Giles finds Miss Calendar and she forces him to keep it a secret. She works hard to make everything up to them and discovers a prophecy that she has a key role in whats to come.
1. Chapter 1 - I Found You

Author's Note: _This Fanfiction does not change anything that Joss Whedon created in his show, and the timeline of events remains the same. Instead this story is adding to the show by providing content that is happening "behind the scenes" without Buffy's knowledge. The author highly recommends watching the Buffy episodes while reading the chapters because the premise of this story is that Jenny comes back to life and has been helping the scoobies the entire time, and some of them never knew about it._

 _This story begins in Season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode "I Only Have Eyes For You"; It is highly recommended by the author that you watch the episodes "Passion", "Killed by Death" & "I Only Have Eyes For You" before/while you read these beginning chapters._

 **My Sweet Escape**

Prologue

*Giles*

Some kind of Paranormal Phenomena was going on and I was probably the only person who knew it, well, for now anyway. I had played the event once more in my mind; The janitor shot a teacher, Ms. Frank, and he claimed to have no idea why. The police could not find the gun he had used to shoot Ms. Frank and what I had seen tonight sounded a lot like the incident Buffy had described the night before when a high school couple got into an argument. The difference was that both students survived because Buffy had interfered, but Ms. Frank wasn't so lucky.

I didn't know Ms. Frank very well and she wasn't the first colleague I've lost to the hellmouth. But due to recent events I've thought it best to distance myself from making any more friends because the pain of losing them is far greater. So I chose not to get emotionally involved and focus on the case. It was easy to conclude that both incidents were related, which means I have a lot of work to do.

But first I needed to visit a friend.

Once I got to Jenny's classroom, I opened the door and I saw her sitting in her chair at her desk, typing. It was exactly the moment I last saw her, replaying in my mind again. I closed my eyes to recall every detail. It was infuriating knowing that if I had stayed with her, it would have changed everything.

I put my hand in my pocket, to pull out the one thing I had left of Jenny. A Rosequartz. I was quietly hating Willow for being the one who was clearing out her desk so quickly, but Willow was doing all she could do. So I couldn't blame her. But how could everyone just move on and act like Jenny meant nothing? I'm barely able to make it through the day sometimes... and it never gets easier.

I didn't want to spiral back into my depression so I turned away, and slammed the door shut on my way out. I glanced back through the small square glass in the door, and my imaginary friend had vanished.

I didn't want to go home. I hadn't slept in my bed and I wasn't about to. But going home was just a horrid reminder of the moment I discovered her body. So I spent most of my nights in the library and other nights out to grab a drink. I had to decide which it would be tonight.

For once living on the hellmouth had an upside. When anything hellmouth-ish happened, it helped me to think of something other than Jenny.

 _But I could have sworn I heard her voice just before the janitor shot Ms. Frank. I could have sworn on everything that, that was Jenny's voice calling out to me that she needed me._

But I may be going mad.

How could I think for one second that it was Jenny? She is dead. Buried six feet under ground. I felt her blank stare, even now, and remember the cold touch of her corpse. I would have done anything to bring her back, hell knows I've tried. But now she is left rotting and I felt incapable of anything. God emasculated me by taking her away.

I walked down a staircase in another cold high school hallway.

It's been about two months since... since it happened, and I still headed off to her classroom almost every night just hoping, dreaming, that I could have a second chance to save her life. That I could see her one last time typing away on her computer and have the opportunity to change the outcome of that night. I know I'm not yet dealing with her loss but that's because something inside of me was screaming that this wasn't over. I've been doing the best I can to cope, even though it hasn't been going well… I wanted the memories from her funeral to have been just some gruesome hellmouth joke.

My thoughts were interrupted.

Suddenly the whole staircase around me flashed a blinding light, causing me to quickly duck to avoid what ever was coming. The flash had only lasted half a second, but it was followed by a crashing sound as if something big had slammed into the floor. My instincts kicked in and my heart started pumping, jumping into action just as the Watcher's Council had trained into me. I stood up quickly to search for the origin of the sound. Down on the hard cold floor of the first flight of stairs, beneath a rounded window, was a woman. A faint cry escaped from her lips. Immediately, I knew I was dreaming.

This wasn't unusual for me, in fact this was very usual. I would see Jenny almost anywhere I went. And sometimes I would play along and pretend it wasn't just my imagination, especially after I've been drinking. She had become my imaginary friend, and this was the daily game we played where I pretend she is alive by some dramatic occurrence, and we spend the moment talking to each other, apologizing... as if it was a normal day. So I looked down at my imaginary friend, wishing I could do anything to bring her back for real. But since I couldn't, tonight I decided not to play along with this game. It was driving me mad. I held back my tears and turned around so my imaginary friend would vanish.

I could still hear her crying.

She called my name.

I began tear up.

I knew this wasn't real. It was impossible.

She began to cry even harder and called out to me once more, "Rupert!"

 _A dream, it has to be._

 _Rupert don't do this…_

"Jenny..." I barely mumbled.

I turned back to face Jenny and accepted the dream, her memory and everything I wanted.

I moved toward her and my body began shivering.

She was lying there crying and clothes covered in earth. Once I reached the bottom step, I bent down toward the perfect ghost and reached out my hand to turn her face toward me. Like usual I expected my hand to go right through her.

But it didn't.

Her cheek was in my hand, and she was looking at me. In a moment of temporary insanity, I thought I was awake. Her face in my hand stimulated something inside of me and I woke up. But she was still there.

She was real.

She was alive.

I don't know why, I don't know how, but there she was lying in front of me, crying, and staring at me.

 _It is part of the paranormal phenomena, it has to be. This can't happen._

 _Could it?_

I was frozen in confusion until Jenny's hands reached for my face. She pulled my face toward hers until we were nose to nose. I closed my eyes and felt her warm tears race down from her cheek to mine.

I couldn't believe it but I had a sudden feeling that this was the moment I'd been waiting for.

 _How were her soft perfect hands holding me?_

 _How was something like this even possible?_

Then again... for those on the hellmouth, that really was a foolish question.

 _Was this really happening?_

* * *

 **Chapter 1: I Found You**

*Jenny*

I gasped for air.

 _What's going on?_

I tried to sit up and my head hit the top of something and my arms couldn't stretch out, like if I was in a box. I couldn't open my eyes, or maybe they were already open but it was dark, so dark that I couldn't see anything. I had no idea what was going on or where I was. Or where I had been. I laid back and reached my arms up the farthest they could go which was not very much.

 _How do I get out of here?_

I tried to push up with my arms but nothing would budge. Suddenly, I found myself once again gasping for air. I didn't bother pushing the top anymore. I started punching but making no progress.

"Giles, I need you." I cried. I'm not sure why I said it, but I felt as if he could hear me.

I punched harder and harder until something cracked and dirt was falling in my face. I was getting frightened and started crying. Then a blue glow started to form from around my skin and it burned. I tried harder and harder to pull myself out, but my body felt like it was on fire.

I screamed.

With the blue glow shining around me I was able to see just enough to feel like I was in a coffin.

As it got brighter, the blue fire got hotter. "What's happening?" I cried hoping someone would hear me or see the blue light. It finally became so bright to the point that it was blinding.

Then it all stopped. The dirt wasn't falling on me, the fire stopped burning, and air was easier to breathe.

I opened my eyes and looked around but everything was white.

I heard somebody shouting, "Don't do that DAMN IT! Don't talk to me like I'm some sort of… " then a loud shot was fired.

Suddenly an Orb of Thesulah appeared in my hands. The orb was glowing a red-ish orange and I could feel a strong connection to it. I still had no idea what was happening, but I gathered up one important piece of information. I died. Where ever I was, it was because I was dead. The orb in my hands began cracking, and it frightened me. Before it could shatter in my hands, I had dropped it into the white abyss below me.

Suddenly I had the sensation that I was also falling. I fell and the darkness all fell along with me. Screams began to sound like cries. Without any warning I landed on a floor and felt the cracking of tile beneath me.

I grabbed my head. It took a couple of moments for my body to process the pain from the fall. Mostly I was feeling numb. Once I was able to recover I opened my eyes and looked around. I found myself lying on the cold, filthy floor of the Sunnydale high school staircase.

And suddenly I remembered everything.

I was murdered, by Angelus.

When I heard footsteps I looked up. A man was walking quickly up the staircase. I got a glimpse of Angelus and begin to panic but after another glance I knew exactly who it was.

"Rupert." I cried.

I don't think he heard me, he kept walking up the steps. I cried out his name the best I could.

"Rupert."

The man stopped at the top step and turned very slowly with the look of desperation painted across his face. He stood still and looked directly at me as if contemplating what he wanted to do. Tears streaming down his face. But I had no patience for this, "Rupert!"

"Jenny." In that same moment he dropped everything he was holding and I watched his briefcase rumble down the stairs. Rupert hurried toward me. Once he finally reached the middle platform, he bent down carefully beside me. He was shaking. It seemed like he thought I would disappear at any given moment. I was scared too. I thought that I would.

His green eyes flared the moment he held my cheek in his palm. I could feel him become tense.

I couldn't bear him being so far away. I reached out for his face and pulled him toward me until we were nose to nose. I closed my eyes. Tears raced down my cheeks and I knew what we were both thinking…

"How?"

So I asked it first.

Seconds had ticked by and he didn't answer so I opened my eyes to look at him and we stared into each other. He consumed me in a kiss. I was overwhelmed with a passion to pull myself so close to him that there could be no space between us. He must have been feeling the same thing because he pushed me toward him with the same intensity.

His arm moved behind my back, supporting me up and my arm moved around his neck, hand in his hair. I would have kissed him like this forever, except I was getting dizzy and had a very difficult time breathing. I pulled away.

*Giles*

"Are you okay?" I asked when she pulled away from our kiss.

She grabbed her head, not responding to the question. She began looking as if she was about to faint.

"No no no..." I said holding up her head, "Jenny stay with me."

I lifted her into my arms. It was the first moment I noticed how dirty her clothes were, and that the tiles were cracked beneath her. I wasn't sure what happened to her. I had no idea why she was even here. But I needed her to stay here. I rushed to the library and my mind began racing with what to do. Her heartbeat was strong and her breathing was normal, but she wasn't conscious.

Once I reached the library I had placed her down on the library table. The same moment I bent over to check her vitals, the rosequarts fell out of my pocket and onto the floor. It was glowing.

 _It has healing powers!_ I remembered.

I took the rosequarts and quickly placed it her hand. It continued to glow and I noticed a sudden change in her condition. Her skin began warming up with some color, her breathing grew stronger and when I took her pulse, it felt steady. She was getting better.

"No." She began coughing. It startled me. Jenny opened her eyes and looked around, "I'm not okay."

She looked around confused. I laughed when I realized she was answering the question I asked before she had fainted. She looked over at me, watching me laugh, and traced her hand on my cheek. She began clearing tears off my cheek. It wasn't until that moment that I had realized I had been crying. Her face changed.

She became very serious, "Why am I back?"

"I don't know." I admitted. I didn't have the heart to tell her she could be a ghost. With the paranormal activity going on, she could be a part of it. Or the cause of it. I wasn't sure and I didn't want to think about it. If she was a ghost, that meant she wasn't going to stay. I didn't think I could let her leave me again.

She looked up at the ceiling and I could only imagine what she was feeling. I was wishing so badly that I could read her mind. I grabbed her hand tightly and she noticed the pink glowing gem I had placed in her hand.

"Am I a vampire?" She asked, still serious.

I chuckled, "You have a pulse."

"Oh."

Her eyes wandered to mine again. She looked like she was full of questions.

"Where did you get your hands on a Rosequarts?"

"Oh… uh, yes, the Rosequarts." I said nervously, "Actually, it's yours. Willow, she gave it to me… found it in your desk."

She grabbed it in her hand, "Do you know what it's for?"

"Willow said you told her it has healing powers."

"Yes. That's true." She said. Slowly she began sitting up, "But it can do more than that. I used it all the time to find you when you were out on patrol with Buffy. It was like a guide telling me where to go. A rosequarts can help you find your loved ones. See how It's glowing." She paused, "That means I've found you."

I had thought it was glowing because it was healing energy. I looked at the glowing gem in her hands, "Why didn't you ever tell me about this before?"

"Because I wasn't ready to admit to you that I love you."

I looked over at her. She smiled.

The gem wasn't glowing because she found me.

The gem was glowing because I found her.

"I love you Jenny."

Her smile disappeared. She looked at the gem and I could see the moment she realized the same thing I had just realized. She looked back at me scared.

"I love you Jenny." I said it again.

I stood from my chair to meet her lips for another kiss. As she sat there on the table, she kissed me back. I felt her move the rosequarts back into my pocket before she wrapped her arms around my neck. It was as if the two months she had been gone had disappeared all in this one moment. I wanted to show her how much I missed her. Everything inside of me felt warm. My legs felt weak. I had to open my eyes just to see her kissing me because I couldn't believe she was here.

"Slow down tiger," she sighed, "I'm not strong enough yet."

"We'll get you there." I promised.

I pulled off my jacket and folded it onto the table. She had tears on her face, but she was also smiling. "Lay down. Get some rest." I urged her, "I'll be here all night."

I suddenly thought of a list of titles I could use to research what was happening.

"Where are you going?" She asked. Refusing to lay down.

"I'm grabbing some books." I quickly went into my office and continued talking, "If I can do some research, maybe I can find out what's going on."

I grabbed a few books sitting on my desk and then quickly walked back out to her. I froze in the doorway looking up at her. I smiled. It was the farthest I had been from her since I've found her and I was so amazed she was sitting there watching me. I walked back to her side and sat in the chair beside her. She finally decided to lay back down on the table, using my jacket I had folded for her head. I grabbed her hand and watched her drift to sleep. When I was sure she was sleeping, I started my reading. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I began my research.

Some kind of paranormal phenomena was going on.

And I wasn't sure if I had caused it.


	2. Chapter 2 - Mr Giles Secret

**Chapter 2: Mr. Giles Secret**

"That's it!" Her expression changed to nothing but shock and disbelief. "It's going to work!" Excited, she saved the files on a disk and pulled it out of the computer. The disk glowed a stunning yellow as she held it in her hand. Miss Calendar heard a noise and looked up from her desk frightened. She saw a vampire.

"Argh!"

She saw Angelus sitting at a desk not too far from her own, "Angel… how did you get in here?"

The moments began to blur together. Suddenly he was in front of her, ripping a thin stack of paper.

"Wait! That's your…"

"My cure?"

Angel squatted down toward the computer and put his hands over the flames between them. "Boy, isn't this my lucky day? The computer and the pages, looks like I get to kill two birds with one stone…"

He looked up at Miss Calendar, "The teacher makes three."

Hallways through hallways, they chased each other around the school and Angelus was not far behind. She let out one last scream, and he grabbed Jenny's neck laughing.

"Sorry Jenny, this is where you get off."

* * *

 **Jenny***

I opened my eyes.

I found myself laying on the hard table in the library, and staring up at the glass ceiling. It was still dark outside, but light was beginning to warm up the dark colored sky. I looked around and saw that Rupert had fallen asleep with his face resting in a book. His hand still holding onto mine.

I didn't want to wake him up but the adrenaline from my dream was still racing through me. My heart was pounding through my chest. I wiggled my hand from his and got onto my feet. I paced around the library and Rupert continued to snooze.

I tried to distract myself. I noticed the stack of books Rupert had piled next to him. I decided to thumb through the titles to see what his theories were about why I was back. He had books titles _Poltergeists, Spirit Realms,_ and _Contacting the Dead_. It seemed he thought I was a ghost, and couldn't actually be alive again. This thought didn't help soothe my anxiety. My thoughts trailed back to my nightmare.

There was something about my dream that really bothered me. The bright yellow disk. It was such a small detail but it was etched into my memory. I was in such a panic that night and I could not remember what had happened to it. Angelus may have destroyed it with everything else. The computer with the program I was working on was destroyed. The pages were burned. The orb of thesulah was shattered. And I was murdered. He got rid of everything that would have brought back his soul. Except… the disk may have slipt pass him.

If _Angelus didn't destroy the disk there is still a chance to get back his soul._

Nothing could have pulled me away from Rupert except for this. It was so important to finish to save Angel. To save everyone.

I ran to my class. It had to be there.

Adrenaline was still racing through me. I was anxious to know if it still existed. It was my only hope to continuing what I started that night.

But I stood frozen in front of my classroom door.

Could I walk inside the room that once held me captive?

I touched the door, feeling nothing. Unlocked, I twisted the knob and pushed it open. I was frightened. It was almost like an invisible force was pushing me away, telling me not to go inside. Flashes of memory flooded my mind, but I fought it. I stepped inside and the feeling began to vanish.

 _I need to do this._

I stepped inside and left the door wide open. I walked toward my desk. My nameplate had been removed and there were several other minor differences. I took a moment to process this; I was no longer the teacher. Since everyone knows I died, it would be a bit frightening, even to Snyder if I just walked in asking for my job back. This was no longer my desk.

This part of my life was really over. For good.

Immediately I noticed a manilla folder on the desk with the name Rosenburg printed on the tab. When I opened the folder I found a copy of all of my lesson plans that I had submitted to Snyder in the beginning of the school year. I wasn't sure why Snyder gave Willow all of my lesson plans…

Unless he had her teaching my class. It made sense. That explains why Willow found my rosequartz and gave it to Rupert. I always left it in my desk.

I looked up at the empty desks and realized that not only was this part of my life over, but that I had also been replaced. I began to feel unneeded.

But I had no time to mope. I opened the drawers searching… I searched through everything. I searched through everything twice, and even a third time, but it just wasn't there. I turned on the computer. If there was one other place it could be… it was probably loaded onto the computer, and Willow may not have realized what it was. Since Rupert didn't happen to mention that Angel got his soul back, I figure they haven't found it yet either. Rupert wouldn't forget to tell me that. It was the reason I was killed.

The buzzing of the computer turning on made my heart skip a beat. I began watching my surroundings more than looking at the screen. I searched. Still nothing. The one thing I had to make everything up to Buffy was missing. I wasn't going to allow my own death to be for nothing.

"Hey it's you..."

At the sound of another voice, I began to panic and stood from my chair. I searched for the voice but it wasn't anywhere to be found.

"Who are you?" I asked shaking. I wasn't able to see anyone standing around me.

The shadow of a person could be seen near the door. The shadow got thicker, and I gasped when a student had formed in the doorway out of thin air. He walked closer to me and my breathing quickened. "My name is James."

He stopped and the light hit him well enough for me to see him better. He looked as if he could be a senior in highschool. He was wearing a letterman's jacket with the Sunnydale colors on it except it looked much older than the letterman jackets I was used to seeing around here.

The feeling came back. The one that wanted to bolt out of this classroom and never return. Only now it was intensified.

"Stay away." I began backing away from him.

"No!" He began shouting at me, "Not until you tell me how you got here."

I backed into the desk.

"I saw you on the staircase with him! But you were in the spirit realm just a moment before. How are you alive?" He grabbed my shoulders and his eyes filled with tears, "Please. Get me out of here!"

His voice sounded very familiar but I looked at him closely and did not recognize his face.

Suddenly it occurred to me that he mentioned spirit realms. Just like the title of one of the books I saw on Ruperts desk.

"Are you a ghost?"

"Please!" He began shaking me. I thought for a moment I was looking at his skeleton, but before I could react, he was normal again. I wasn't sure if I imagined it. James continued, "He opened the spirit realm and this is my only chance to get out!"

"I don't know!" I did not try fighting him. I was still too weak, "I don't know how I got here! It just happened..."

"Liar!"

When he shouted at me again I finally recognized where I had heard his voice. Last night, before I had fallen onto the staircase, I was in a white space and I heard him shouting " _Don't do that DAMN IT! Don't talk to me like I'm some sort of..."_ I also remembered the gun shot. It was clear to me that he was a ghost, and Rupert was very close to figuring out that I was too.

He looked deep into my eyes and I could see his anger fall from him in an instant.

"You look so much like her..."

I didn't respond. He seemed to be calming down and I didn't want to provoke him. James let go of my shoulders and fell to his knees in front of me. He began sobbing.

As he cried I had a moment to gather my thoughts. The spiritual realm had been opened and James was a violent ghost. He admitted he had killed people. And from the little knowledge I had of ghosts, I knew that in haunted houses, the only way to expel a ghost was to either perform an exorcism or help resolve the problems keeping them here. This could explain why I was here. Maybe I was just stuck here because the realm had been opened and I had to find Angel's cure in order to move on. Suddenly finding Angel's cure meant that I would have to sacrifice myself again. I could stay a ghost forever and stay with Rupert or I could find the cure and remain dead forever.

 _How would I tell Rupert?_

But as James had mentioned, this was only possible because someone had opened the spiritual realm to begin with. Someone was trying to hurt the students at this school and I wasn't going to let them get away with it.

"James," I tried speaking calmly, "this is very important… Are you aware of who may have created the opening into the spiritual realm?"

He stopped crying almost instantly. He looked up at me and a dark glimmer appeared in his wet eyes. His emotions were changing so fast, it was clear that he was unstable.

He smirked at me.

"Aren't you?"

A very dark helpless feeling began seeping inside of me when he said it. "What do you mean?"

With a large smile on his face, he vanished. His whisper echoed in the air around me, "Let me show you."

 **Giles***

I woke up the next morning worried that Buffy might make some shrewd comment about the fact that I was wearing the same clothes from the previous day. But honestly I didn't care. Nothing mattered. Nothing mattered now that Jenny was back.

I rolled my head over and opened my eyes. I was smiling, ready to see Jenny's face but instead my heart was broken. Jenny was not sleeping where I left her. Without thinking I jumped out of the chair in panic and searched my office.

"Jenny?"

She wasn't there.

"No! Dammit! No!"

I ran up stairs and searched the through the stacks but she wasn't there. I couldn't hold it in anymore. Crying was one thing, but going crazy was another.

I sat on the corner of the table where I had left her, holding onto the folded jacket she had used for her pillow,.

 _Did I dream this?_

 _Was she here?_

 _I think she was._

 _Then again, I've dreamt about her like this several times before._

 _No._

 _I knew she was here!_

 _She had to have been._

 _I refuse to believe that I had made it all up._

She had to have been the reason for this paranormal activity in the school. There was no other explanation for why I saw her. There was more questions than answers and things just didn't quite add up. But I wasn't going to waste any time. She obviously needed me.

 _However..._

 _What if this was just a dream?_

I took a deep breath.

 _Jenny died two months ago._

 _You are only going to make things worse._

 _It's not the first time you have dreamt about Jenny, and probably not the last._

I grabbed my folded jacket off the table and put it back on. I had noticed that my left side was a bit heavy so I uncovered the item from the pocket. It was the rosequartz. The rosequartz was no longer glowing the light shade of pink that it had been glowing all night. But when I was holding it in my hand, I just knew…

 _Jenny was here._

 **Jenny***

"Let me show you..."

In a flash, I was suddenly standing in the Magic Box. However, the Magic Box looked strange because everything was a different shade of grey. Including the people. A woman with long hair walked right past me and straight to the register. She seemed aggravated.

"James where are we?" I whispered, hoping the woman wouldn't hear me.

"She can't see you," he said. I could feel him standing behind me. "We are in the past. I'm going to show you what you want to know. Shh... listen."

The woman at the register looked up, looking directly at me. "Mr. Giles, I've told you, I'm not selling you anymore magic supplies."

Just then I could feel him walking right through me. Rupert walked through my ghost and moved to the register.

He looked furiously at the woman, "Sanarah you are being ridiculous."

"I'm really not." She demanded, "This is your fifth time attempting to contact or resurrect Miss Calendar, and I told you not to do it the first four attempts. This is where I am drawing the line. You don't understand the consequences this dark magic will have. You are brewing something huge, the entire magic community can feel it, even you."

"That's because I'm getting close." He insisted.

She ignored him, "You're not close Mr. Giles. Not to mention your last attempt was such a disaster that half of Sunnydale High School is now out with the flu, including your slayer! THE SLAYER," she emphasized, "Does she even know what you've been doing?"

"I admit, that was a mistake." Rupert put a pile of things on the counter in front of Sanarah, "but look. I'm trying to fix it! The flu was caused by magical means which means I can get rid of it with magic."

Sanarah looked hard at Rupert, trying to study him. She took a deep breath and finally looked through his items.

"Yes," she replied, "Most of this is needed to clear up what you did. But some of this isn't."

She took a few items off the pile and put it behind her. She looked at Rupert and gestured to the new pile in front of them, "I'll sell you this."

Rupert looked defeated, "Please. Let me just try one more time."

"No." She said simply. "I wouldn't even consider it right now until I'm sure that you have taken care of the flu problem."

"But you will reconsider...?" he pushed.

"Maybe." She breathed, "Maybe not. I don't know. Now get out of here, I'll just add this to your tab."

Rupert walked out of the Magic Box with his stuff looking disappointed. James and I followed him to the high school. As soon as he reached his desk, he unloaded his magic supplies, but before he could have time to set anything up. The phone rang. It was Willow.

"Giles, Buffy is in the hospital! She was in a fight with Angel. She's fainted." She panicked, "You better get here."

"On my way." Without a second thought Rupert put his jacket back on and raced to his car.

What I saw next were just flashes.

Mrs. Summer's looked nervously at the doctor. All of the kids and Rupert were standing around them.

Mrs. Summers spoke up, "Is Buffy okay?" "We were able to stabilize and..." Mrs. Summers interrupted impatiently, "Is she okay?" The doctor looked at her reassuringly, "She's going to be fine." After another flash all I could see was Mrs. Summers and Rupert.

"I hope I'm not out of line, but... I-I wanted to say how sorry I am about, uh, that teacher, Ms. Calendar. Buffy said you were close." Rupert nodded nervously at Mrs. Summers. "Oh, uh... Thank you."

Mrs. Summers continued, "Buffy's been so down since it happened. I mean, she never gets sick."

Rupert looked down guilty knowing that he was responsible for this. At that moment he decided to go to the library as soon as he could to finish the spell to get rid of the flu, "Well, I'm sure she'll be, uh... she'll be fine."

I forgotten that James was standing behind me. He made his presence known when he grabbed my shoulders and we flashed back to the library.

This time Rupert was crying. All of his magic supplies looked to be set up, but he was hesitating to do the spell. He sat in a chair beside the library table and cried into his palms. "I'm sorry Jenny," he said, "But I can't hurt Buffy to bring you back. This is all my fault."

I watched him helplessly knowing that there was nothing I could do. I was only watching a memory.

He looked up, tears in his eyes, and threw rosemary above him. I thought it would have fallen back down onto his face but it froze in the air above him. He lifted his palms in the air and threw a golden dust onto the rosemary. The Rosemary began spinning rapidly. He put his hands back down, rubbing them together to get rid of the remaining sand. He then began breaking what looked like twigs, and placing them in a small round bowl in front of him. He used the candle next to him to light the twigs on fire. He let the fire spread for a bit in his bowl of twigs, and then poured it out with a bottle of holy water. The mist from the bowl rose to the rapidly spinning rosemary.

"Cleanse the air of my magics." He whispered.

James walked up to Rupert and pointed to his face, "Watch what happens next."

I watched Rupert's face and saw a small tear fall from his cheek into the bowl of twigs. At that exact moment it sounded like there was a large rip coming from above us. I looked up and in this memory of grey, a fist size purple gaping hole appeared on the ceiling of the library. Whispers and screams started coming from it. I looked at Rupert to see what he would do, but he did nothing.

The rosemary shined a bright white light, and fell. Rupert caught it back into his hands, and began cleaning his mess.

It was as if…

"He can't see it." James knew what I was thinking, "But tears and pain are very powerful. His mistake was performing a cleansing spell when he himself wasn't in harmony. The spell worked. He undid all of his bad magic, but his pain ripped a hole into the spirit realm. He had already been doing so many spells to open it, to find you, that the separation between the two had become very thin."

"Rupert tried to bring me back?" I walked up to him as he was cleaning. He just walked right through me and I could feel his broken heart. "He opened the spirit realm."

Rupert walked out of the library and the door slammed shut behind him. All that was left was James and I in the dark library with the large purple hole looking into the spirit realm.

"It's not big enough yet for anything to get through," James admitted, "But with no one taking care of it, in about a month this hole grew and I was presented with my opportunity to try and escape the spirit realm. The Sadie Hawkins dance was coming up. The same day that I died. I was allowed through. Every once in awhile something else will wander out of it. That's why I'm here." He pointed to the hole, "Because of that. Because of him. Because of you."

"We need to close it." I gasped, suddenly understanding the purpose of all of this.

"NO!" James demanded. He grabbed my hand and in one last flash we were out of the memories.

Suddenly we were standing inside the choir room of the Sunnydale High School. Students were roaming around in the hallways outside of the choir room. Everything was full of color again, unlike the grey memories.

I ducked beneath a desk so the students walking by wouldn't see me.

James bent beside me and forced me to look at him, "Everything will get sucked back in the moment it's closed. I'm not going back. This is my chance."

"How are you planning to free yourself from the spiritual realm?"

"With help from the slayer," James looked at me for a moment before putting his head down, "Out of everyone here, she is the only one who can understand me. I can feel her pain. It's like mine. She can understand. If I can show her my story, she will help me."

I was instantly angered the moment he said this. "You can't just use Buffy like she is some kind of tool!"

"I'm getting out of here." He argued, "and I'll do whatever it takes!"

"Then let me do it. Let me be the one to help you." I pleaded, "I will do whatever it takes to help you move on. I won't let you hurt anyone else!"

James looked down. Deep down he knew he didn't want to hurt anyone else either. "Fine."

"So..." I started, "What's your story?"


	3. Chapter 3 - Shattered

**Chapter 3: Shattered**

 ***Giles***

"It's Jenny." I said simply.

"What?" Buffy seemed confused.

Xander cut in, "You think she is the ghost."

"Don't you see? She - she died here under tragic circumstances and now, now she's trapped."

I wasn't going to tell them that I had in fact seen her last night. The children have noticed my change in behavior since Jenny died and I know they would just assume that I was being desperate. Maybe I was. After she died, she became my imaginary friend. Last night could have just been another episode I imagined, but part of me knew that last night was different. I just wasn't ready to tell them that I had seen her.

"But what about the gun?" Willow interjected, "I mean Angel didn't shoot Miss Calendar."

"The gun is insignificant! It's the violence of the thing that matters." Which was my way of saying I had no idea how the gun was related to my theory. I walked into my office grabbing the rosequartz on my desk and looking for the book I needed for locating Jenny.

"I don't know," Buffy tested me, "These fights these couples keep having, it's sort of specific."

Willow agreed, "She's right! It's a pattern that doesn't fit with the way Miss Calendar died!"

The three of them made it very clear that they would be stubborn about this. Although I had to admit that they were right about some things, but what happened with Jenny last night didn't fit into their theory either. They were just going to have to deal with the fact that I was right about this and they needed to stop being so rebellious. They were distracting me. I walked back out to politely shoo them away.

"Well, yes, I... I appreciate your thoughts on the matter. In fact, I well, I encourage you to always challenge me when you feel it's appropriate. You should never be cowarded by authority."

I was about to head back into my office until I realized how angry I was at them for not listening to me. I deserved more trust from them than that. I always researched everything for them throughly. Why did they think that this time was any different.

I turned back to them, "Except in this instance when I am clearly right and you are clearly wrong."

 ***Jenny***

James showed me everything. I saw his love for a teacher named Grace Newman, and saw that she loved him back. I saw them dance, I saw them fight and I saw her killed. I watched him kill himself afterwards. I saw the two students act out the memory until Buffy interfered, and watched George, the janitor, and Ms. Frank also act out the memory. Ms. Frank had been killed, and Rupert stopped George from running off and killing himself.

"When they start acting it out, I can't stop them and they will die."

We spent half of the day attempting to think of solutions for James. So far we hadn't come up with anything. In return for helping him out, James kept the choir room locked so no one would interrupt. I was thankful for that. Students would freak if they saw me.

"What we need is someone who won't die when you shoot them," I admitted feeling helpless about this already, "the story might change if she doesn't die."

"That's it!" he shouted.

"What?"

James paced around the choir room. I was sitting with my ear against the door. I could hear the hallways get louder with the students getting out of class and heading to lunch.

"Buffy is the slayer! She could survive..."

"No!" I looked at him, thinking he was crazy, "She's not bullet proof! She'll die. What you really need is a vampire." I joked.

"A vampire!" He agreed excitedly.

 _Oh. Wait. That was a good idea._

"Wait..." his excitement changed to disappointment, "It won't work."

"Why not?" I pushed.

"Because vampires don't feel love." He explained, "It won't work unless the two hosts have that connection. That's the key."

"That's not true! What about George and Ms. Frank?"

James laughed, "Please... those two have had the biggest crush on each other since she started working here. He never had the guts to talk to her and she was too scared to get to know him. Anyone could see it. He was about to ask her out just before I had taken over..."

"Oh." I said sadly remembering what James showed me, "That's awkward."

"If only there was a vampire that has experienced love."

Angel instantly came to mind. I stopped myself from telling him. If he knew that the only one was Angel, he would get Buffy involved again and I was trying to avoid that at all costs.

I tried to think of a new solution.

"James," I called to him, "even if we change the outcome, it can't change the past. Grace is still dead. It might not accomplish anything. Maybe... maybe what you really need to do is to accept what happened. Realize it was an accident."

I expected James to fight me, but instead he looked as helpless as I felt. We spent half the day trying to figure out the solution. It looked like he was giving up.

"That won't work," he breathed, "I can never forgive myself for what I did. Maybe we should close the spirit realm - I deserve to suffer for what I did."

"James.. we won't give up. We can try..."

"Wait."

He looked up.

I waited for him to say something but he didn't.

I became impatient, "What?"

"Something is coming through the spirit realm."

Suddenly we heard screaming. "Snakes!""Oh my God!""Run!"

I stood to my feet and tried to run toward the screaming children. But the choir room door was still locked.

"James! Let me out! I need to help!"

"No." He said quietly, "This will be good."

"How is this good?" I shouted at him. "What's going on?"

"A lot of snakes appeared in the cafeteria. They are harmless. The snakes will scare everyone away. They'll be safe. No one will be at the school to play the part. No one will get shot."

"How do you know?" I asked, needing the assurance.

He was still looking up, "I can feel it. I can feel anything that makes its way through the spiritual realm. This will be good, I promise."

I backed away from the door.

 _He was right._

"I think it's time." He continued, "We will close the spirit realm. Tonight. That way no one else will get hurt."

I could hardly breathe. If the spirit realm was going to close tonight, that meant I would get sucked back into the spirit realm with James. I knew I had died already but I wasn't ready to give it all away again and lose everything that I just got back. I knew closing the spirit realm would save lives, but it wouldn't save mine. Maybe if I told Rupert what was happening, he could come up with a solution. I had to see Rupert again before James and I closed the spirit realm. Maybe Rupert could find a way for me to stay… or maybe I could at least say goodbye.

"I need to go to the library," I informed James, "There is a book that I'm sure will have the spell we need to close the spiritual realm."

"Good. We will need it."

I heard the door unlock and I left to the library. I tried my best to avoid being seen. With students running out of school, and me running further in, it was easy for me to run past them. They were all distracted.

I got to the library unseen.

"Rupert?!" I shouted, looking around the library.

No one was here. I checked his office, but he wasn't there. I was disappointed. If I couldn't find Rupert, there was a chance that I would never see him again. I sat in his chair and wanted to cry. If I had my rosequartz, I'd locate him like I usually did. But I didn't have it. Rupert had it and I didn't know where he could be. My only hope was that Rupert would use the rosequartz to find me.

I focused on the books on his desk and found the _Spiritual Realms_ book that I needed.

I sat in his chair and I sighed. _Where could he be?_

*Giles*

I knew my task would be difficult the moment I walked into the Magic Box.

"No." Sanarah didn't even look up at me as I walked in. Today her red hair was up in two long pigtails. She was counting the money in her register, "You need to leave."

I tried consoling her, "Sanarah..."

"You know..." she interrupted. She looked up at me and I knew she was angry, "You have some nerve coming back here."

"I got rid of the flu." I reminded her, "Just like I promised."

"I know what's going on at the high school Mr. Giles." She walked around the counter to get closer to me, "The spirit realm is open and you expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with it? I told you not to contact Miss Calendar again. I told you there would be consequences!"

I followed her as she walked away, "As difficult as it must be for you to believe, I don't know why this is happening! All I know..." I grabbed her arm and forced her to look at me. She stopped walking and looked at me. I continued, "All I know is that Jenny contacted me, and I would regret it the rest of my life if I never found out why."

She must have seen something that told her I was serious. Her expression became soft. I released her arm.

"You really love her don't you?"

"I do."

She grabbed the book from my hands. "What spell are we doing?"

"The find your love spell." I showed her the pages in the book that I had bookmarked.

"You need a rosequartz," she sighed, "and I'm out of those."

I pulled one out of my pocket, "I have hers."

Sanarah looked from me to the rosequartz.

"This spell only works with the living." she added.

"I know. I think she is alive." I admitted, "I saw her last night and..."

"Giles..." she sighed disappointed. Handing the book back to me.

"Please." I pleaded, "Let me take what I need. If I'm wrong then my spell won't even do anything."

She turned away from me, and started organizing her shelves. There was a long pause. I could tell she was thinking.

"Do what you need." She finally said, "You have one more day. Find her if you need to, but tomorrow I'm going to step in and deal with this if you don't."

"That sounds fair." I agreed.

I didn't hesitate to gather my supplies. I was about to run out of the magic box, but stopped at the door.

"Thank you Sanarah..." I looked at her.

She barely smiled back at me before looking back down to count the money in the register.

 ***Jenny***

I knew exactly what spell to do to close the spiritual realm because I used all my time to study it. I waited for Rupert in the library for a couple of hours but he never showed. It was becoming very clear to me that the snakes must have also scared him away and I wouldn't get to see him again. I was so mad at myself. _Why did I even leave him to begin with?_

Then I remembered.

 _Angels Cure._

This was my last chance to look for it. I had to make things right for Buffy, and finding the cure was my last hope. Otherwise my death was for nothing.

I couldn't wait any longer. I left Rupert a note, and left it in his briefcase.

 ***Giles***

I made myself go home to change before heading back to the library. I knew I was close to finding Jenny again, and I didn't want to smell like I had worn the same clothes for two days. Without wasting anytime, I had also charmed the Rosequartz while I was at home. The rosequartz glowed the last time I found Jenny, but it did not lead me to her. Jenny mentioned that she had used this talisman's energy to guide her to me. I needed to tap into that energy in order for it to work properly, and guide me to find Jenny again. I used Guiley's Grimoires in order to find the instructions needed for turning the rosequartz energy into one for scrying. Grimoires were always helpful for creating talismans and giving instructions to perform certain spells. They were my go to books for anything magical. It astounds me that Miss Calendar had found this information online. The information from these books were thousands of years old.

The rosequartz shimmered and I knew it was ready. I grabbed it and closed my eyes.

She was in the library. She was in my office.

My pulse raced. I got excited. She was there. I could feel it in my bones.

I raced back to the library.

Every red light became an inconvenient stop sign. I could have been arrested for my reckless driving except for the fact that my car was unable to go above 40 miles an hour.

I needed a better car.

By the time I made it back to the library, the school looked as if it had been abandoned. I checked my watch and noted that classes had ended a while ago. I imagined that the sun would set soon. I noticed a police car driving up to me as I walked toward the campus.

"Excuse me!" The man inside the bellowed from his car, "No one is supposed to be going in there."

I looked back at the school curious as to what had happened and realizing that I had been out of the loop all day. "What happened?"

"Backed up sewer lines. Snakes just appeared everywhere." He pointed back at the school, "You shouldn't go in there. It could be dangerous."

"Is everyone alright?"

"Yeah." He said relieved. "Some students got bit but nothing serious. These snakes aren't poisonous, but still it could get a lot worse if those sewer lines are backed up."

I assumed that was Snyder's excuse for the paranormal activity. But the snakes were a blessing because it kept the children safe and out of the school for a while.

"Very good." I continued, "Well thank you for letting me know. I'll just come back later."

He smiled and waved at me as he drove away, "Have a nice night."

I watched him drive far enough out of sight and started running toward the campus so no one else would see me go inside.

I crossed the campus successfully and entered the library. The closer I got to my office, the stronger I could feel it pulling me.

This was it. She was here. I knew it.

I took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

"Jenny!"

"What?"

"No..."

Every part of me could feel that this was where the rosequartz was pulling me, but no one was in my office. Especially not Jenny.

I walked further into my office as if that was supposed to make a difference in searching for her.

All that was notable in my office was the empty chair and the lonely briefcase on my desk. It was very clear to me that my rosequartz charm was not working. I had to find something else. Another way to contact her. Maybe she was dead. I didn't know anymore. I was angry and confused.

I slumped into my chair with my thoughts racing what new thing to try. I placed the rosequartz on top of my briefcase. I almost jumped when the rosequartz began glowing. I quickly picked it up again and looked around. I was still alone. When I glanced back at the rosequartz, it was no longer glowing.

"It's broken." I murmured. _I must have performed the spell incorrectly._

I threw it back onto my briefcase and it started glowing again.

I stared at it. I picked it up.

The glowing stopped.

I placed it back down.

It started to glow.

I began to realize that if the charm was working properly, then it was leading me to my briefcase because something inside my briefcase would lead me to Jenny.

I did not open my briefcase.

I already knew what was inside.

After Jenny had died, I had taken responsibility of burying her. Since she lied about her identity, there was no way of contacting her family. What was in my briefcase was the contract for her grave site and the receipt from purchasing her coffin and tombstone. Inside was the legal papers I had to sign in order to claim her body. I didn't want to open my briefcase because I already knew where it was leading me. Jenny was dead and the rosequartz was leading me to her coffin.

Tears rolled down my cheek.

I picked up my lamp from my desk and slammed it against the rock. The rosequartz shattered.

I suddenly felt lost. My anger mixed with desperation.

All of my hopes of finding her alive had shattered.

I couldn't breathe.

But if she was dead, I could try to contact her spirit again. I still had all of the supplies I had used from trying to contact her before I had accidentally caused the flu. That was all of the hope I had left.

I ruffled through my desk so fast grabbing the candles, spirit stones and oils. I was very sure that I had left my desk in shambles, but keeping my desk organized was not my priority.

I ran back into the library and set my candles in a circle on the floor wide enough for me to be able to sit inside of the circle. I left one candle off to the side. Next I placed the the grey spirit stones in a second circle around the candles. Each stone had a unique symbol etched into it. Once each stone had its place, it was important to light each candle in a clockwise rotation in order to perfectly perform the ritual. I sat in the middle of my circle and grabbed my extra candle. I used three drops of pure and virgin olive oil to rub against the final candle. Three drops were also important. Three was a numerical vibration that opened gateways into higher planes. I lit the final candle, my hands shaking. The flame on this candle became blue.

The moment the last candle was lit, I was granted visions.

I began watching what appeared to be a student and teacher fighting. She called him James. He called her Grace. Their fight began to make them sound like lovers quarrel. I was watching the scene long enough to recognize the same fight from last night.

Buffy was right.

These were the ghosts haunting the school, and it wasn't Jenny.

I watched him shoot the teacher. I watched him shoot himself.

As if I had been woken up from a dream, I began to panic.

The room became cold and a slight breeze had made it's way inside, blowing out all of the candles in my circle.

I had more equipment. I had more supplies. I had more spells to try. I wasn't ready to believe that last night with Jenny wasn't real. The truth was starting to set in that Jenny wasn't the ghost, and that Jenny wasn't alive. But I was fighting it.

 ***Jenny***

It was almost midnight and I headed back to the choir room, where I knew I would find James. I couldn't find the Restoration Spell and I even tried recreating it on the computer, but none of the correct software had been loaded onto this new computer. It became very frustrating knowing that I was doing everything in my power and it still wasn't good enough. But it was getting very late, and James was right, we needed to close the spirit realm. If we left it open for another day, someone else could get shot and I wasn't about to let that happen.

In the note I left for Rupert, I didn't mention Angel's cure. I knew if I couldn't find it, they did not have the computer skills to recreate it. I had created the programs myself and it had taken weeks to do so. I would be giving them false hope, and I didn't want to cause anymore pain. Angelus had succeeded in getting rid of everything what would have cured him and now there was nothing for me to redeem myself.

This was it.

I walked into the choir room and could hear music playing. James was standing by the record player. He was just listening to the music. I could see with the look on James face, that he had a rough day too. I walked toward him without saying anything. I grabbed his hands and lightly pulled him toward me. I let the music "I Only Have Eyes for You" by the Flamingos fill the room by turning up the volume a little higher. We began dancing. I held him close to me, and he held me back. We both began tearing up, knowing that this was the end.

There was nothing left to do but to close the spirit realm.

"Are you ready?"

"Someone came back to the school." He spoke softly, "But I took care of it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I laughed.

 ***Giles***

After performing the last spell a heard a choir of doors slam shut. Even the library door made a buckling sound as if it had been locked. My last spell must have worked. I contacted a spirit and it locked me inside the library. This was good, it meant I was getting close. I slowly moved to the library door and attempted to push it open. It wouldn't budge. I used more force and it still wouldn't open. I gave it a few more tries and still nothing. I decided to back up and use my full body. I took off my glasses. I moved quickly toward the door with all my force.

The door pushed open.

I was not expecting to see someone on the other side and we both released a piercing scream.

"God! Willow!" I was trying to catch my breath, "What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be inside!"

 ***Jenny***

"It's okay," he assured me, "I don't want to hurt anyone else."

I relaxed knowing that he was right. We continued dancing. He rested his nose on my forehead, "You remind me of Grace."

"Seeing as how you killed her, I'll take that as a compliment."

He moved his cheek against mine. I closed my eyes imagining that I was dancing with Rupert. James was probably imagining he was dancing with Grace. I could feel our minds were far away from here. These were our last moments and we wanted to be with the ones we loved.

Suddenly James became cold. His skin became rough.

"They're here!"

"Who?"

I looked at him and saw him staring as if someone was behind us. I turned to look but before I could get a glimpse of who was behind us, James had shimmered us into the library office.

"The slayer is here!" He shouted, "And she brought friends."

"No!"

 _They are going to die._

"Get them out of here." He urged me.

"How?"

"Do whatever it takes!"

He disappeared and left me to figure it out on my own. Just then I heard screaming.

"Willow!" I heard Rupert yell.

"Rupert!" I ran out of the library office to run after him but by the time I opened the door and got out, the library doors were swinging open. He had already ran after Willow.

I heard more screaming in the distance and knew I had to work quickly.

I looked around and noticed Rupert had a setup of magic supplies, as if he had been trying to conduct a spell. I remembered that this was where the spirit realm had been opened, and I grabbed one of the spirit stones and held it into the sky.

"Spirits roaming in this space, send me a guardian to clear this place!"

The spirit realm appeared in front of me. The large purple gaping hole was much larger than when I had seen Rupert accidentally open it. The sounds of crackling thunder came from the opening and I could hear the screams of many souls. The stone in my hand had vanished. Suddenly everything became very still. A small wasp flew out of the hole and into my hand.

I looked at it disappointed. This wasn't enough.

I closed my eyes and imagined millions of wasps. With all of the magic energy I had stored inside of me, I took a deep breath and blew at the mosquito. Suddenly, the mosquito in my hand had multiplied into millions of mosquitoes and began flying in a large group out of the library.

This was it. I had done it.

I watch mosquitoes leave from my hand and thrust into the hallways of the high school. When the last one left my hands, James appeared by my side.

"You had me worried there for a second."

I smiled, "I did it!"

"You have a lot more power than you think," he smirked, "I can feel it."

"Are they safe?"

"They made it out." He assured me. "And what you did will assure that no one else can get in until we are done. We better get started."

"Yes, we should." I started looking through the supplies Rupert had laid out on the library table.

James grabbed my arm, "Wait. Jenny, why didn't their spell work?"

"What spell?"

James handed me a folded piece of paper. "They were performing an exorcism. I tried to stop them but they completed the spell by midnight. One of them dropped this."

I took the paper from James and noticed it was a map of the school with four stars in different places around the school. They had written names around the stars and Buffy's was in the middle.

"Wait," I dropped the paper and recollected the book I was planning to use to close the spiritual realm. "I saw this shape earlier."

"It's called a mangus tripod. They stand in different places around the haunted area and perform a chant." I flipped through the book and continued reading the page with a similar diagram, "If the spell worked it should have gotten rid of the spirits."

"But it didn't work." James reminded me.

I looked at him confused. I grabbed the piece of paper he handed to me and studied it carefully. It took me a second to realize their mistake.

"It didn't work because the person in the center is supposed to be in the hot spot, where all the bad energy is coming from." I said pointing to the map, "They formed the triangle around where the shootings keep happening."

"I know." He reminded me, "I was there."

"But that's not where the bad energy is coming from." I said pointing at the large purple hole into the spirit realm. "The spirit realm is where the bad energy is coming from. It's here, in the library. They don't know that. They assume it's coming from where the people keep dying. And they are going to find a way to come back and keep trying."

James looked at the spirit realm and for the first time I noticed he was scared.

"Then I guess we need to close it." I could sense his hesitation.

"It might take a while." I admitted, "but I'll get started."

James paced nervously around the library and I watched him carefully. I started setting the rest of the spirit stones in a circle on the floor.

"Someone's coming in." James said. He was very intune with what was going on everywhere in the school.

"What!" I shouted at him, "I thought you said no one could get in."

"It's not human." He said intrigued, "It's a vampire."

I closed my eyes. I felt as if I had been punched in the gut. A vampire on campus could ruin everything.

James continued, "And he knows love..."

 _Especially that vampire._

"Angelus."

James looked at me.

He heard me.

"What did you say?"

He started moving toward me, and I became frightened. His eyes filled with anger.

"You knew!? You lied to me?!"

"I-I..."

"Why did you not tell me?" He grabbed me by the neck and I couldn't breathe. I tried pulling his hand away from my throat but I did not have the strength to pull him away.

"He loves her doesn't he?" He spat in my face, "He loves the slayer. You've been trying to protect her all day."

"No.." I cried. The words could barely make it out of my lips.

I was losing consciousness. The last thing I remembered was James throwing me onto the floor.

"I'll take care of this myself."


	4. Chapter 4 - Temporary Insanity

**Chapter 4: Temporary Insanity**

 ***Giles***

"...based on all of the parallels and Buffy's visions, it's James's spirit."

 ***Jenny***

I was beginning to wonder if I would ever find myself waking up in a bed ever again. I rolled myself off I the floor and tried ignoring my pounding headache. The library was still empty. I noticed that there were stones and candles everywhere on the floor next to me. It wasn't until I was back on my feet that I had noticed the candles and stones were forming a circle. The sound of a rustling breeze echoed around me. I looked up and saw the spiritual realm still exposed and open.

I wasn't sure how much time I had left, but I had to close it. I thought it was strange that the candles and spirit stones were already set out exactly how I needed, as if someone was already here casting spells. I grabbed the lighter next to the candles and began lighting them in a counterclockwise rotation.

As soon as I began chanting, a gunshot was fired far off in the distance.

 _Buffy!_

It was possible I was too late but it was important to continue. However, the gunshot had distracted me, and the bottom hem of my skirt caught on fire. I patted away the fire as quickly as I could until it had disappeared, but my leg was already covered in severe burns. Blood was starting to ooze from the red patches on my skin.

I had to ignore the pain and continue. Closing the realm was the only chance I had to save Buffy.

I closed my eyes and began chanting again. I could hear the spirit stones rattling on the floor as I continued and a breeze lifted the air around me. I could feel the spell working. I opened my eyes and watched the opening begin to close. The rumbling thunderous sounds coming from the opening started to hush. When the candles and spirit stones lifted from the ground, I ducked watching them being sucked into the spiritual realm.

This was it. Suddenly I realized this was my last moment and I was also about to get sucked into the spiritual realm too. I was overwhelmed with despair because I never got my chance to see Rupert again.

The library doors opened behind me.

"Rupert!" I turned.

I watched as a large swarm of wasps gathered into the library. I had forgotten that there were other things besides James and myself that may get sucked back into the spirit realm. I watched the giant swarm of wasps tower over me and it was too late for me to move. I was between them and the spirit realm they were getting sucked back into.

It felt like I was hit by a wall of stingers as they flew past me.

 *** No Point of View***

Sanarah drove up to the Sunnydale High School annoyed that she had allowed things to get so out of hand. She felt responsible for the paranormal activity. She had sold Mr. Giles the magic supplies because it pained her to see him be so lost. Trying to contact Jenny brought life into his face so Sanarah let him try a couple of times. When she told Mr. Giles to stop, it was clear he didn't listen.

The school was being haunted. Just after Mr. Giles had left her shop she overheard a couple of customers talking about the infestation of snakes at the high school which sent the students and teachers home for the day. A couple of hours later she had heard about the wasps.

She had promised to give Mr. Giles one more day but it had gotten out of hand. Sanarah was going to end this now. She drove to the high school because she had plans to close the spiritual realm tonight.

Just as she pulled up to the front of the school she rolled down her windows and heard the massive amount of buzzing coming from the swarm of surrounding the school. Sanarah's mouth fell open. She had no idea how she would even get inside the school.

The swarm of wasps she was watching suddenly began to move by flying deeper into the school. She watched until they had disappeared completely. The air had changed and Sanarah could feel the spiritual realm had been closed. She saw a group of people run inside the school after the wasps had disappeared. She saw one of them was Mr. Giles. Sanarah jumped out of her car to chase after him but she stopped when she noticed someone limping through the grass.

This woman limping through the grass had a lot of power, Sanarah could feel it even though she was standing so far away. She assumed that this had been the person who closed the spiritual realm. Sanarah quickly moved toward her. The woman had fallen into the grass as if she couldn't continue.

Sanarah approached her and noticed how filthy this woman's clothes were, and her leg had a huge red burn that was still fresh. She lifted the woman's head to see her face and saw that it was bright red. All over her body were small red bites, as if she had been mauled by all those wasps. She was beginning to swell.

"Hey," Sanarah said, pulling the woman upwards, "I need you to stay awake."

The woman's eyes fluttered and Sanarah could tell she was still alive.

"I'll get you help," Sanarah continued, "but you need to help me walk you over to the car."

Sanarah knew she didn't have the strength to carry this woman to her car. The woman didn't open her eyes but she slowly began to stand to her feet. Sanarah wrapped her arm around her shoulder, and they took one step at a time until they made it to the car.

Sanarah drove her quickly to the nearest E.R. and kept talking to keep the woman awake.

"You closed the spiritual realm?" Sanarah asked, glancing at the swollen woman next to her, "I'm a witch too."

The woman breathed her responce, "I did..."

Sanarah was unsure if it was a statement or a question. She went with a question.

"Yes you did! I mean.. I think you did. Someone did. The spiritual realm is closed now. I can feel the shift in the energy."

"But I..." the swollen woman paused, "I'm still here. I-I wasn't a ghost..."

"Of course you're not a ghost silly." Sanarah laughed. This woman must be getting delusional, "Why would you think you were a ghost?"

The swollen woman grunted in pain. She was losing her energy again, "I-I died." She breathed. Sanarah could hear her breathing quicken. The woman next to her was crying.

 _Died?_ Sanarah looked over at the woman and a nervous feeling grew inside of her stomach. She feared that she knew the answer to the question before she asked it, "Who are you?"

The swollen woman didn't answer. She continued to cry.

"Are you Miss Calendar?"

Her eyes slowly looked over at Sanarah, "Why am I alive?"

Sanarah looked forward again and continued to drive to the E.R.

"Oh." Was all she could manage to say.

 _Rupert wasn't crazy._ Sanarah realized, _Did he do this?_

Miss Calendar continued to cry in pain. Her whole body ached. She felt like she was on fire.

"Don't worry Miss Calendar," Sanarah tried to calm her, "We are almost there."

By the time they arrived at the hospital, the E.R. took in Miss Calendar almost immediately because it was clear that her condition as quite severe. Her face had become so swollen that it was unrecognizable. As the doctors rolled away the unconscious Miss Calendar, Sanarah was left in the waiting room. She wasn't quite sure what to do. A nurse came out to talk to her.

"Do you know this woman?"

"No." Sanarah responded. She couldn't exactly tell them that the woman they were working on was a woman that had died over two months ago.

"Did you contact the police?"

"No. I brought her straight here."

"You did the right thing," the nurse replied. He could tell Sanarah was nervous and tried to console her, "We will contact the police. It's important we find out who she is. If she needs an operation we can't do anything until we see her insurance."

 _Police?_ Sanarah began to panic. _The police will only make this worse._

"Wait!" Sanarah stopped the nurse before he could leave, "I think I know someone. He might know who she is."

"Okay," the nurse said, "You better bring him in now. If he doesn't know who she is or what happened then we will have to get the police involved. No choice."

"Understood." Sanarah agreed.

 ***Giles***

Buffy was lucky to have survived. It didn't occur to me that the ghost could possess someone of the opposite gender. My head just wasn't thinking straight.

After driving the children home, I needed to think. I drove home and didn't turn on my lights. I sat in the dark. I allowed my obsession to bring Jenny back distract me and the kids almost lost their lives because of it. I couldn't allow that to happen again.

The moment I realized that Jenny was really gone for good, I felt like I knew it was time to accept her death. The moment I had with her was just a moment of temporary insanity. I felt empty. Emotionless. A part of me died tonight when I realized that I was done searching for her. It was easy to hide my pain from the kids because I had to focus on protecting them from the real ghost at the school.

I would never let the hope of finding Jenny distract me ever again.

The phone rang.

In the dark, I sat and was very slow to answer the phone.

"Hello."

"Hi," said a nervous voice, "Mr. Giles, it's uh, it's Sanarah."

"There is no more ghost," I said coldly, "It's been taken care of."

"I know." She said lightly.

"Oh. Well if you called to inform me that I can no longer purchase from your store then I should tell you that I fully support your decision." I informed her, "You're right. Miss Calendar is dead I shouldn't try to contact her anymore."

"Mr. Giles," she said softly, "I found Miss Calendar. She's alive. She needs you."

My heart became numb as she continued.

"Miss Calendar is in the E.R., I'm not sure what happened. I think she got through the wasps to close the spiritual realm. She has bites all over her body. The doctors can't operate until they have insurance information. I don't know what to tell them. I don't know what to do. You need to come to the E.R. now or she will die."

I left a long moment of silence. I wasn't ready to speak.

"Giles!" Sanarah clearly impatient, "Are you there?"

"Yes." I replied.

"Then you need to hurry!"

A tear slowly fell from my cheek.

"I'm sorry Sanarah, but you must be confused. Miss Calendar is dead..."

"No! Gi-"

I hung up the phone.

I remained motionless in the dark house.

 ***No Point of View***

The unsteady beat of the woman's heart was slowly coming to an end. Nobody was in the room now except the doctor, and the dying woman. He was able to gather that she was covered in wasp stings and snake bites. Her face was so swollen that it was impossible to imagine what she must look like.

The doctor was supposed to be calling the police and informing them of the Jane Doe. But he couldn't. He did not want this place filled with the police asking questions. He sighed watching her closely. This woman was going to ruin everything for him.

"This is my first week here and I'm not going to let you ruin this for me," He said to the unconscious woman, "You have no idea how hard it was to get a transfer here."

He walked over to a counter and opened up a briefcase. He reached inside and pulled out a little pink gem.

"In my country, using magic as a source of medicine was fairly common practice. Americans are so pathetic making any use of magic in the hospital setting illegal. I was going to stick to these stupid laws but I can't have the police snooping around. If anything… I need to keep a low profile until I can find Janna, of the Kalderash clan."

With the pink gem in his hand, he held it tightly in his fist and mumbled a few words under his breath. The gem was now oozing pink liquid from the doctors hands.

"Rosequarts… useful little gems." He said walking over to the woman and letting the liquid drip on her wounds, "The only way to keep the police out of here, is for you to live."

The gem in his hands had vanished and the last of the ooze was complete. The doctor walked over to the sink and began washing his hands.

"Well whoever you are, it's your lucky day! You were saved by a gypsy."

He walked back over to the swollen woman and waited for her vitals to improve.


	5. Chapter 5 - You Happened

**Authors Note:** Hey readers! This is a short chapter but I wanted to share with you some cool updates about this story. This story has a couple of extra bonus features to stay updated such as **a tumblr page** (JforJenny), **a playlist** (SexyAssLemonade on youtube), **a tumblr page to explain playlist song choices** (MySweetEscapePlaylist) and **a facebook page** (Jenny Calendar & Rupert Giles). I keep these pages updated daily and even **give SPOILERS** for the newest chapter. Check out these extra features and let me know how you like it. Unfortunately this site does not allow direct links posted, so if you need help finding them, please PM me!

I hope you enjoy this short chapter! - _(you didn't think I would leave them apart for long did you?)_

 _ **Please show this story some love and leave a review!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 5 - You Happened**

 ***Giles***

 _Rupert,_

 _I apologize for leaving you early this morning, but something came up. I found a ghost haunting the school, his name is James and I am trying to help him close the opening to the spiritual realm. I don't want anyone else getting hurt. I came back to the library to tell you goodbye, but after the snakes appeared, I understand why you didn't come back. I think I may be a ghost but I'm not really sure. If you're reading this and the spiritual realm is still open, please use the rosequartz to find me. If the spirit realm is closed, then it may be too late. Whatever the case, I really need you to know:_

 _What I did to you and Buffy is the biggest regret of my life. I don't know what's happening next, but I do know that, dead or alive, I'm going to make it up to both of you. I'll do whatever it takes, I promise. It's been life changing falling in love with you and I do not regret that for one moment. Rupert, you are the most amazing man and I'm lucky to have found you. No matter what happens, no matter who dies, don't stop fighting the good fight. We are all fighting to make the world better, and one day it will be. Until then - don't mess with computers, let Willow handle it._

 _Never, never, never, never, never give up._

 _I Love You Always,_

 _Jennifer Calendar_

 _P/S: YOUR OFFICE IS A MESS! Get your act together England._

"Where is she?"

Sanarah stood from her chair, very confused to see me, "You came to the hospital?"

"Sanarah!" I shouted back at her. I had no patience. I needed to find Jenny.

"She's fine." Sanarah tried consoling me, "The doctor came out awhile ago. I'm sorry to have scared you. He basically said that we were over-reacting and all she needed was ointment. She's still pretty swollen. Doctor wants to keep her until the swelling has gone down. She's sleeping."

"Did they call the police?"

"No, they didn't need to." Sanarah chuckled, "The doctor claimed that the injuries were not severe enough. I swear I thought she was going to die. Imagine trying to explain this to the police."

"Right. Good."

Sanarah spoke up again, "Giles… what made you change your mind? Why are you here?"

I looked at the letter I had clenched in my hand. I hadn't let it go from the moment I found it.

"Oh - uh," I choked on my words, "I went to throw away everything in my briefcase because I wanted to be done with her, and then I found a letter she had wrote to me. I did that spell earlier to locate her and the rosequartz led me to my briefcase. I misunderstood what it was telling me. It was trying to lead me to this letter."

Sanarah was silent.

"Why are you still here?" I asked.

"I didn't know what to do." She admitted. She paused before continuing, "Giles, did you bring Miss Calendar back to life?"

I took a deep breath, "I don't know why she is here Sanarah."

"Well I need to know." I could tell she was upset, "raising the dead requires a lot of dark powerful magic and if someone that powerful is in Sunnydale, we need to know about it. Raising the dead can do more harm than good. I need to know what happened."

"I'm not in a place to help you right now. I need to see her."

"I know." She pulled on my arm and turned me to face the hallway of hospital rooms. "She's in the third door on the right. She's sharing a room so be quiet. I'll go to the Magic Box to see what we can do."

I looked down at the hallway feeling nauseous

"I'm surprised you didn't run straight there," she said as she watched me hesitate.

"I convinced myself this was the last straw. If she's not here then I'm done looking for her. I'm letting her go. I think I'm scared to find out if she is really there."

"What are you going to do if she is there?"

 _I don't know._

I didn't answer. Instead my body moved through the hallway. Nothing felt real around me. I was dizzy and still nauseous. The hallways felt as if they were spinning. I grabbed onto the wall and held on for balance. I kept moving.

Third door on the right.

An old woman was sleeping in the first bed. I stumbled over to the last bed in the room and pulled back the curtain.

Her face was swollen and her arms were covered in massive lumps. But I knew with all my heart that it was Jenny. I wanted to sit next to her but my feet were frozen. I became a statue and for a long while I watched her sleep. A feeling of warmth had rushed over me. Excitement buzzed through my skin.

She was here. She was really back.

I smiled.

After a long moment, I bent into the chair beside her.

"What happened to you?" I whispered.

The sleeping swollen Miss Calendar turned over to look at me.

She smiled.

"You happened." She whispered back.

She grabbed my hand and held onto it tightly.

I was filled with an overwhelming need to laugh. The smile across my face was so large that even tears couldn't hide it. _How could she joke at a time like this?_

"Don't leave me again."

"Never again." She promised.


	6. Chapter 6 - Blueberry Muffins

**HAPPY HALLOWEEN!**

 **reviews are like treats for Giles favorite holiday.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Blueberry Muffins**

*Giles*

I could tell Jenny had so much to tell me but her voice was very hoarse. I insisted to her that she fall asleep and we could talk when she was feeling better. Although I had to admit that it was very difficult to wait and hear what she wanted to say. I held onto her hand all night as we were both in and out of sleep.

The doctor came to check on Jenny early the next morning.

He seemed to be a very young doctor. He was a tall and slender man with dark skin. His eyes were a striking light shade of green and he had full dark hair on top of his head. As he walked into the room, he seemed taken aback to see me.

"Do you know this woman?" He asked. His accent was very apparent.

"Yes." I nodded.

I sat up straight, still holding onto Jenny's hand, and trying to compose myself.

"Good." He exclaimed, continuing to move toward Jenny. He walked to the opposite side of the bed I was sitting next to, "She was dropped off last night by a very frightened woman. Although… I don't blame her. She is uh, very swollen."

The doctor put down his clipboard and put on his stethoscope. He measured Jenny's heartbeats.

"It's gone down considerably from last night." I mentioned, watching her slowly start to wake up with the cold touch of the doctor's equipment.

"Ah!" The doctor said pleased, "You are awake! This is good. Very good. You were unconscious when they brought you in."

He pulled his stethoscope away. Jenny slowly tried to sit up. She only was able to open up one eye since the other was still very swollen.

"Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Jenny looked over at me. I could tell she didn't know what to say.

"Oh-uh," the doctor looked over at me as I spoke, "She was trapped in the high school when the swarm of wasps gathered around the school."

"I heard about that." The doctor said shocked, "Very, very strange. A few of the students were bitten by the snakes. You were the only one hurt by the wasps. Those exterminators they must have hired are very good cause they can't find a single creature this morning."

The doctor bent over and hovered a flashlight in Jenny's good eye and I watched her pupil dance around his light.

"Okay, now the swelling is going to take a while to go down. I'm not too worried about that. The only thing I'm worried about is this burn." The doctor said, pulling the blanket up around the knee of her left leg. Just above her knee her leg was covered in bandages. Something I hadn't been aware of. Red blood patches had seeped through the white bandages. The doctor slowly pulled them back.

I gasped, "Oh my god!"

Jenny gave me the death glare and the doctor looked at me confused.

"You mean you don't know how she got this?" He asked me.

"Um… I..."

"I tried to use fire, to scare the wasps away." Jenny grumbled, "but the wasps ended up scaring me more."

The doctor looked away from me and back at the wound.

"Well this burn was infected. I cleaned it out last night but it's going to hurt, a lot.. We need to be very careful. This is going to take a long time to heal." He admitted.

"How much longer do you think I will have to stay here, in this hospital?" Jenny's voice was stronger now but still scratchy.

"What, am I not good company?" He said with a wink.

I got the sense he was flirting with Jenny. I watched him continue to wrap up Jenny's leg with the bandages and my stomach felt uneasy. I tried to ignore this feeling, but I couldn't stop watching where his hands moved.

Jenny gave a small smile in return.

"I just want to get her home." I said seriously.

"Oh!" He said looking at me. "Right. Of course. Let me go grab you your medicines and I'm sure you can leave today."

Sanarah walked in as he was about to leave. She was holding a cup holder full of coffee and a pink box of donuts in the other hand. She had obviously just taken a bath because a soapy smell filled the air as she walked in. She was also wearing a change of clothes and her hair was now in a ponytail resting on her shoulder. She looked at the doctor and a smile spread across her face.

"Hey doc."

"Please call me Ralph." He insisted, "We like to be called by our first names where I'm from."

He nodded at Sanarah and she blushed. He walked out of the room and she turned to watch him leave.

"Ahem." I coughed, hoping to get her attention.

She turned back to us, smiling embarrassingly. "Sorry... but he's kinda hot."

"I wonder where he is from." I asked, trying to recognize the accent.

"He is from whatever part of the world made Denzel Washington and George Clooney cause he is one hot piece of toast."

Sanarah, Jenny and myself looked closely at each other. The voice must have come from the other side of the curtain. Sanarah handed me the cup holder and donut box and slowly pulled back the curtain.

An elderly white woman was sitting up in her hospital bed with a wonderful smile painted across her face. The white hair on her head was puffed into curls and she wore a floral button up shirt. The rest of her was buried under her hospital blanket. She was looking over at us laughing.

"I'm sorry. I overheard you talking and I just couldn't help myself. I used to love scaring my children talking to them like that." She gave a small wave, "Hi, my name is Lucy."

"Jenny." She smiled.

Sanarah moved over to the old woman and shook her hand, "I'm Sanarah."

"I'm Rupert Giles," I nodded over at her.

She looked at all of us smiling widely. "I'm so sorry for bothering you guys. I haven't had any company for the past two days. I'm about to go in for a heart surgery today and I'm a little nervous. It's nice to finally have some company in here. My failing little heart couldn't take being alone much longer."

"What time is your surgery?" Jenny asked.

"Noon," Lucy replied, leaning her head against her bed as she looked at us. "And oh isn't our doctor wonderful! He has been trying to get a transfer to this hospital for a couple of months and just last month a doctor had been murdered, so a spot was opened."

I felt strange knowing the doctor she spoke of. When Buffy was in the hospital a couple weeks ago, an invisible demon had killed a doctor.

"Murdered?!" Sanarah was the only one who reacted.

"Well yes," Lucy said, her eyes widened, "But you would be surprised how often strange stuff like that happens around here. I was born and raised in Sunnydale and I feel like I've heard every rumor imaginable. Do you know, some people in this town really believe in vampires? I mean, how crazy can people be?"

Jenny and I gave a soft chuckle.

"Oh yes," Sanarah softly joined in our laughter, "How crazy."

Sanarah turned back to us and grabbed a coffee.

"Well you are welcomed to share any donuts with them," She said to Lucy. Sanarah looked back at me, face serious, "Rupert, can I borrow you for a second?"

"Of course."

I gave Jenny's hand one last squeeze as I kissed her forehead. She closed her eyes and smiled. It was very hard to move away from her. I stood from my chair and followed Sanarah out of the room. We stopped in the hallway not too far from the door.

"Mr. Giles, I just wanted to check in and see how she was doing."

"The doctor said she is doing much better." I assured her, "How are you doing in your research?"

"I think we will find out how she came back to life by tonight. I found something, but it requires a lot of baking. Aaaaaannd this." Sararah pulled a long strand of hair off of my suit. It was black, and it was obviously Jenny's. Sanarah continued, "Now that I have all I need, I can continue. I just wanted to stop by and bring Miss Calendar some clothes, since I figured she may not want to be wearing clothes from your wardrobe." She looked me up and down very judgingly before taking off her backpack and handing it to me. "Here."

"Thank you Sanarah," I took the bag from her, happy she could think of the things that I couldn't. "Very much."

"No problem. I have to go back to work, but I'll see you both again tonight."

"If you need anything, call me."

*Jenny*

Every time I opened my mouth to talk, I was never sure if words were going to come out. Occasionally half of the sentence would be nothing but air. I was trying very hard to speak but my throat was very sore. Lucy seemed to understand and she did enough talking for the both of us. Lucy was born in Sunnydale, California. She told me about how she was a nurse during World War II and became an English teacher after that. Her husband had passed away a couple of years ago and her three children had grown up and moved far away. She spoke very robustly for someone in her eighties, and it was clear that being constrained to the hospital bed was really upsetting her.

"Every morning I go to Coco's for breakfast. I'm a regular there," she said abrasively, "And those folks are probably wondering where I am!"

"Well you will be back before you know it." I managed to get out a full sentence.

Rupert walked back in holding the backpack Sanarah had been carrying. I noticed that Sanarah wasn't behind him.

He looked at me, anticipating my question, "She'll be back tonight. But she brought you these..."

Rupert handed me the backpack and I looked through it and found women's clothing. I was very happy. I didn't want to leave the hospital wearing this hospital garb. The doctor followed shortly behind Rupert, so Rupert took his usual seat next to me.

"Alright!" He exclaimed, "We have two ointments for you."

He handed both bottles to Rupert as he continued. "You need to rub the first one all over about three times a day, it's for the mosquito bites. It will help soothe the pain and help the swelling. The next bottle is for the burn. Use this one twice a day so the burn doesn't get infected; it keeps the area numb until it can fully heal."

The doctor looked at me. Half off my face was still very swollen so I was very self-conscious about how long he was looking at me. Suddenly he blinked and looked away as if he realized that I had noticed him staring.

"I'm sorry," he laughed, "You're starting to look so familiar to me."

"Well I bet you meet lots of swollen faced women in the hospital."

"True." He smiled, "What's your name?"

"Jenny!" Lucy piped up, "And you really shouldn't ask her so many questions, she's having a hard time speaking."

I looked over at Lucy and she winked at me. I looked over at Rupert worried if giving my name was a bad idea. But he seemed unphased. I looked back at the doctor and he was still staring at me. I couldn't read the look on his face.

"Oh."

Rupert interrupted the staring contest, "So can we leave now?"

"What?" The doctor was distracted, he shook his head. "No, no you can't leave."

"But you said..."

"The burn!" He said abruptly, "The burn is going to need more bandages soon, and I'll have to check on the wound one more time."

"It's noon!" Lucy interrupted, "It's my turn!"

"Yes, of course." His smile that I was so used to seeing had faded from his face. He didn't even smile looking back at Lucy. "So, uh… Jenny, just stay here and I'll be back to check on you later."

I nodded at him, as he walked over to Lucy. Nurses headed into the room.

"We'll be here when you get back!" I smiled and waved at her as they rolled her away.

She smiled back at me tapping her hands lightly on her chest.

"His reaction was weird..." I looked over to Rupert, "did you see that? Do you think he knows who I am?"

Rupert shook his head, "Relax, Jenny. There is no way he can know you were the teacher that died. Lucy told us he only arrived a month ago, long after it had happened."

"You think?"

"I'm sure of it."

I smiled back at Rupert, so happy that my one good eye could see him. I rested back into my bed and closed my eyes, waiting for my wounds to heal. With Lucy in a heart transplant surgery, I figured we would be waiting a while. I started thinking of things that could pass the time.

Rupert broke the silence, "Jenny, I think it's time for you to tell me what happened. I mean… if you can."

"Oh." I wasn't very sure where to start. "Well, I ..."

"Why did you leave?"

"I was looking for something." I admitted.

"Looking for what?"

I looked over at Rupert and carefully watched him, "Do you know why Angelus killed me?"

"To get to Buffy, I imagine. To throw us all off our game."

"No." I shook my head, "Rupert… I had found his cure."

Rupert became tense, but I continued.

"That's what I wanted to show you that night, we were supposed to meet up. I had created a computer program that would translate the curse completely, and it worked." I coughed and tried to clear my throat before continuing, "I was ready to bring it to you when Angelus showed up. He destroyed everything. He destroyed the computer, the program, the print outs. He killed me because I had the answers to giving him back his soul."

"If he destroyed everything," he took off his glasses and looked back at me, "Then what were you looking for?"

"I thought I had saved it on a disk." I saw the confusion on his face and rolled my eyes, "Seriously Rupert, get with it. One day you are going to use a computer and you are going to thank me for teaching you how to use it."

He put his glasses back on just to give me a disapproving glare. I decided to explain anyway.

"You can save stuff you create on your computer onto a floppy disk. You can take that same disk and insert it into any computer and see the same work." I rubbed my throat and waited to see if he understood. I continued, "I thought I saved it onto a disk, but I guess it was tossed out or burned. I was going to come back to the library to find you when James, the ghost guy… found me." I coughed when a tickle became too intense in my throat. "He showed me that... the spiritual realm had been opened... which is why... he was haunting the school... and we needed to close it to prevent anyone else... from getting killed. I need some water..."

I finally took a breath and Rupert jumped. "Right! Of course."

He got up to pour me a glass of water but I could see his mind was far away. He filled the cup of water and looked back at me.

"Did you say the spiritual realm had been opened? You mean someone opened it?"

"Water!" I choked.

Again he jumped, finally handing the water to me. I took a couple of swallows until my throat felt clear enough to talk.

"You are correct." I said, half smiling at him.

"Who opened it?"

I took another sip of water, hesitating to tell him, "Um.. it was you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, apparently you missed me." I said jokingly and he began to blush, "James showed me that you tried to contact me, in the spiritual realm. The barrier between the two worlds became very thin, and then you performed a cleansing spell which... accidentally ripped a small hole into the spirit realm. Eventually the hole got bigger and stuff was able to come through. But I closed it... so all of that spooky stuff should be gone!"

I was about to take another sip of water when I froze. Rupert touched my shoulder. "Jenny what is it?"

"Buffy?" I panicked, ready to jump out of bed, "What happened to Buffy?"

Rupert pushed me back down into the bed softly, "Don't worry Jenny, Buffy was alright. I think James used Angel and Buffy to act out the scene and according to Buffy the uh, Miss Newman forgave James, and they disappeared. Angel ran out and Buffy made it out okay. I imagine she's at home sleeping in."

"Oh," I relaxed. I smiled realizing that meant James was able to move on before I had closed it.

"Jenny I'm so sorry. All of this is happening to you because of me."

"No." I shook my head, feeling worried, "Someone brought me back to life, and we need to find out what's going on..."

 ***Ralph (The Doctor)***

I was very distracted while performing the heart transplant for Lucy. Thankfully everything was successful but it took a lot longer than it should have.

After the surgery, I pulled out the photo I had of Janna. She was quite a beautiful woman with her short hair and long dress. It was just an ordinary photo. The elder woman had given it to me when I went on my hunt to find Janna. She also informed me that Janna went under the name Jennifer Calendar and she worked at the Sunnydale High School as a teacher. I stared at the photo and could see the swollen faced woman inside. It was the same woman. I should have known when they mentioned that she was trapped in the high school by the wasps. The woman I came here searching for was right in front of me.

I became very angry at myself. The gypsies will be very upset to discover that I had saved the woman that they wanted dead. I had to fix my mistake.

 ***Giles***

Lucy came back later that day. She was attached to multiple machines and a nurse came in to check on her every half hour. Lucy slept for the rest of the day but with everyone in and out of the room, Jenny and I didn't have any more alone time. Jenny slept for much of the day as well and the swelling in her face had diminished almost completely. My stomach began to growl. Sanarah joined us that night. This time she brought some muffins.

"Wow, she looks so much better." Sanarah said as he walked in.

"Thanks." Jenny answered for herself. She had kept her eyes closed but she apparently wasn't sleeping. She finally opened her eyes when Sanarah entered the room. "I feel much better."

"I'm surprised you're still here." Sanarah said, walking closer to Jenny's bed. She placed the muffins on her lap.

"Doctor said he was going to change her bandages one last time, and make sure the burn isn't infected. It's been a long time though," I admitted, "I thought he would have shown up by now."

Jenny reached out and grabbed Sanarah's hand. "Sanarah, thank you. I haven't had the chance to thank you for saving my life."

Sanarah blushed, "You're being dramatic. Ralph said you weren't even close to dying."

"It didn't feel that way to me." I admitted, "And that's coming from someone who has died before."

I looked up, almost angered by her statement. "Jenny don't joke."

They had no idea what I had been going through for the past two months. I couldn't get over her death and here she was joking about her death like it was something casual. _Well, it wasn't._ "I-I just am not ready to make jokes about it."

There was an awkward pause of silence, and I could feel both ladies staring at me. Jenny grabbed my hand.

"Well I'm here now, and Rupert tells me you're going to help us figure out why."

"Right." Sanarah said, jumping back into the conversation. "But we need to be alone. She said gesturing toward Lucy."

"She's going to be asleep for a while." Jenny informed her, "We should be fine. And the nurse just left so we have about 30 minutes."

"Good. Let me just double check no one is coming."

Sanarah left the room to double check the hallways, and closing the door. I reached for a muffin to fill the hole in my stomach.

 _Mmm… blueberry!_

"Mr. Giles... No!"

I looked up from stuffing the muffin in my mouth. Crumbles began to fall everywhere and everyone became witness to my messy eating.

"Whaa-?" I said trying to swallow the muffin I was chewing. I tried to compose myself.

"That's a magic muffin!" Sanarah shouted, running back towards us.

"What?!" I exclaimed. "What do you mean?!"

"I told you that the spell I was working on required baking!"

 ***Jenny***

"Sanarah you don't just put muffins in front of people and forget to tell them not to eat it!" Rupert explained, obviously angry.

"Sorry."

By the time Sanarah murmured her sorry, Rupert's head had fallen into my lap. The muffin in his hand.

"What happened to him?" I asked worried.

"Hopefully when he wakes up... he'll have some answers for us." Sanarah said.

"Is it going to work?"

"It should." Sanarah nodded, "I charmed the muffin so whoever ate it could see what happened to you. I was planning to give it to you, but Mr. Giles was obviously hungry so…" she shrugged.

It was obvious that she didn't seem too worried. I looked back at Rupert and I just patted his head. Sanarah sat in the other available chair next to me.

We just watched Rupert and waited.


	7. Chapter 7 - Janna of the Kalderash Clan

**Chapter 7: Janna of the Kalderash Clan**

 ***Giles***

* * *

"Are you certain that Janna can still not be found?" An old woman asked following a man through a beautiful painted hallway. The floor to the ceiling was architected in marble.

"Positive. We have tried everything, like you said, she must be under a great spell to hide herself from us." The man that the old woman was talking to was Ralph. The doctor that had been taking care of Jenny.

"We mustn't let her get away with neglecting our people and her duties…" the old woman spat.

Ralph stopped and turned back to her, "I know Ileana," He reached out and held her shoulders, "I promise you this… that dreadful woman won't get away with rebelling against our clan and ruining everything our ancestors have done."

"You promise Ralph?"

"You have my word." He bent over and gave Ileana a gentle hug around her fragile figure.

They walked inside, what looked like a small conference room with a long table seated with many people waiting for their arrival.

No matter how frail the lady was, there was an undoubtable gasp of fear as her presence entered the room. Her people not only feared her, but respected her. They all had grown up under her weary eye. Everything she taught was truth to them. Everything she taught, was their life. She had been the leader of the Kalderash clan for many years because of her power and no one crossed her.

"Ah, finally… thank you for joining us today." A man said delightfully as they walked in the room.

This man's hair was slicked back with a sophisticated touch of grey. His grey suit was clearly the most expensive suit in the room and accessorized with a gold watch and pink tie.

Ralph pulled out a chair for Ileana and as she sat, the other man walked over toward Ileana, taking the seat right beside her.

Ralph rolled his eyes and was forced to sit in the only other chair available, next to this guy he clearly didn't like.

"It was a pleasure brother," he decided to act polite in front of all these people.

He took the seat beside his brother and the meeting began. They all started discussing what they were going to do about all this trouble Janna had caused, and how they were to punish her. Ralph was quickly bored with this… he leaned in and whispered in his brother's ear.

"What did you bring me here for?" He insisted. "You told me today would be different."

"I thought you would enjoy the plan I created for us. One the elder woman would be pleased with…" he motioned toward Ileana.

Ralph didn't seem interested, "What makes you think I would want to work with you?"

"I wouldn't call it working together… I would say it went more along the lines of… a competition."

Ralph was intrigued, he loved the thought of beating his brother and getting glory from Ileana in the process, "What do we do?"

"See who is the first person to find Janna and bring her to the gypsies to do with her as they please."

Ralph hesitated "And the winner gets what?"

"Well, that depends on how happy the winner makes Ileana." He smiled so brightly, that Ileana, sitting beside him noticed.

"What are you two mumbling about?" she insisted.

"We have come up with a plan." The brother replied and the old woman got excited. He stood up and spoke over the murmurs in the crowd. Everyone silenced, "listen here, before we decide what happens to the traitor… we must bring her here, or else we may never find her to punish her."

"Well, if you don't mind, can I cut in?" Ileana stood up from her chair.

"Of course." He said smoothly and sat back down, a little irritated that he was interrupted.

"Well, I have yet one more spell we have not tried yet, to locate her. The most powerful spell known to our tribe. Janna betrayed my great grandmothers curse and I would like to take part in finding her." She demanded. "The spell is powerful."

"Ileana," His brother said pitifully, "the most powerful spell of our tribe is the Ritual of Restoration and it only worked once, not to mention parts of the spell have been lost."

"I know," she explained, "but I have just enough of the spell I believe to find her soul and I know all the ingredients needed to make it work. As long as I can look to her soul, I can see where she has been hiding. Scrying for her is not powerful enough. At the very least that's something that we can accomplish."

"Then let's give this spell a chance." Ralph clapped his hands together.

"There are only a couple things I need…" she nodded.

* * *

 ***Jenny***

Rupert had been passed out in my lap for about ten minutes when the doctor finally walked. Rupert had eaten the Muffin that Sanarah had enchanted to tell us how I was brought back to life, but we couldn't really explain that to the doctor. Sanarah quickly grasped the muffin from Rupert's hand and made it look as if she had been eating it. I continued to run my fingers through Rupert's hair to make it look as if he was just sleeping..

"Hi Ralph!" Sanarah said excitedly as he walked into the room.

"Hello." He barely looked at her. He came straight to me, "Jenny..."

"What's wrong?" I could tell that something about him seemed very different.

Ralph was about to speak until his gaze had met mine. We stared at each other for a long moment. His face softened, "It's time to change your bandages." Ralph glanced over to my lap and for the first time noticed that Rupert was in the room, sleeping in my lap. His brows folded together in confusion, "He's going to have to move."

"Right!" Sanarah jumped up, placing the muffin down, "I'll take care of him."

It was awkward watching Sanarah pull Rupert upright in his chair. She dragged his chair to the side and Rupert remained motionless, his head asleep on his shoulder.

"Is he okay?" Ralph asked, scratching his head and watching with a genuine concern.

"He, uh, just hasn't slept for a while," I tried to explain, "Let's just focus on my leg!"

"Right."

"I'll give you some privacy and grab some snacks from the vending machine." Sanarah smiled, clearly directing her attention to the doctor, "Would you like anything?"

"I think Rupert might want a KitKat or a Rocky Road when he wakes up," I suggested. He was obviously hungry.

"Okay." She decided that the doctor wouldn't respond to her so she walked out of the room.

 ***Giles***

* * *

"Are you ready Ileana?" Ralph asked.

"To the best I'll ever be." She said sitting with her legs hidden under her picturesque gown, as she crossed them. The conference room looked a little different, because now everyone was standing and watching the old lady as she worked. She was sitting on top of the conference table. Candles formed a circle around her and she continued to chant. She held a glass orb in her hand which started to glow a brighter blue as she was chanting. Giles wasn't able to make out what she was saying, but could only tell that she was speaking another language.

After the last line, Ileana was in the middle of what looked like a blue tornado. The others all watched in awe.

The flames from the candles raised high toward the ceiling, and Ileana sounded as if she was in pain. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her face was tilted upwards.

"Ileana!" Ralph shouted but his brother held him back.

"Not yet…" He continued to watch in interest.

Ileana began whispering but no one could make out what she was saying. The orb in her hands disappeared.

Fire from the candles caught onto the blue light and before anyone could grasp what just happened. Ileana was now surrounded by fire. Everybody panicked, even Ralph's brother.

"Ileana!" they all yelled.

She fell to the floor.

The fire that surrounded her had transformed into water, which fell in droplets on top of her. Ralph came running by her side.

"Ileana!" he said turning her over. "What happened?" he said furiously staring now at his brother.

His brother just shrugged looking confused. "I guess it didn't work… looks like our bets back on."

Ileana started coughing and everybody looked back at her. "I-I'm fine."

"It's okay… rest." Ralph explained.

"B-but I-I know where s-she is." She was getting her breathing back in order. Ileana was angry, her eyes black, and she was determined to get up and finish.

"Where?" Roffie's brother asked.

"T-the hellmouth… she's still there! I saw her. She-she's been hiding in a different realm. That's why we couldn't find her. She's hurt." She looked at the others who stood there watching her. "I think the spell we cast pulled her out of it. I couldn't tell what was happening. It was so dark!"

"It' okay." Ralph held her, "Just relax."

His brother didn't seem to care about the elder woman. He began pacing the room formulating a plan.

"The hellmouth?" He looked over to Ralph.

Ralph smiled back at his brother as he held onto the elder woman.

* * *

 ***Jenny***

Ralph moved in front of Rupert and began unwrapping the bandages. He was still acting strange, in a way I still could not understand.

"Is he your, uh, boyfriend?" Ralph asked.

"Umm..." I looked over at Ralph. I wish I had an easy answer for the question but our relationship had never been easy. "I'm not sure yet."

"Sounds complicated."

I laughed, "Everything with him is complicated."

"Do you have family here?"

"Nope." I shrugged, "My parents passed away and the rest of my family lives in Romania. I've never really met them. My parents moved out here shortly after I was born. I grew up here. Well, not here Sunnydale, but San Francisco. I lived most of my life out there until up to two years ago, I moved out here."

"What motivated the move?"

His questions were beginning to annoy me. It wasn't his fault but he was beginning to pry into areas of my life that I had not yet dealt with myself.

"I had some business here." I said vaguely, "But that didn't go well."

"What are you going to do now?"

I paused, realizing that I hadn't really planned that far ahead. I never really do. When I looked over at Rupert, the answer came so easy.

"I'm going to fix some of my mistakes, and then I'm probably going to stick around."

I looked at the doctor and he seemed almost sad. He turned around and grabbed a syringe from his bag. He began to fill it with a clear liquid. His sad eyes reached mine. He quickly looked away from me, but this time, angry.

"What about you?" I hoped we could change the subject from me, "Where are you from?"

"Romania."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I should have known from the accent but the only other person I've met from Romania is my uncle… Enos."

The doctor looked back at me with a fully loaded syringe and suddenly it dawned on me that our meeting was possibly not an accident. He had been acting very strange from the moment he heard my name.

"Why are you here?"

"Have you figured it out yet?" He smiled wickedly. "Kalderash are big on punishing those who have wronged them. Making sure they suffer."

I carefully watched the syringe in his hand. He continued.

"The gypsies sent me to find you. They have been scrying for you the past two months. They assumed you took great lengths to hide yourself from them after Angel lost his soul. I thought it would be much harder to find you… but here you are. You just landed in my lap and I had not even started looking for you yet."

"What do they want?" My heart raced as he neared me with the syringe. I bet whatever he had loaded into it, wasn't friendly.

"To fix their mistake."

 ***Giles***

* * *

"Ralph thank you." The elder woman said weakly. She was recovering from the spell. Ralph had taken her home and made her ciorbă ţărănească, her favorite romanian vegetable soup. "You take such good care of me."

She was sitting up in her lounge chair on the front porch of her home. Ralph had pulled up a chair beside her. She placed the soup down on a small glass table between them.

"Of course." He smiled at her, "It's an honor to serve you Ileana. You've been like a mother to me."

She smiled at him fondly, "If only your brother saw it that way."

"He does." I assured her. "He is going to bring Janna to Romania to make you proud."

"I do believe he has other intentions for his actions."

Ralph looked at her strangely but did not question her further.

"Ralph I need you to take this." She handed him a clear vial with a gooey liquid inside. "When you find her, inject her with it. It's a magic potion that will keep her knocked out until you bring her back to me. She is injured, she is going to need a doctor. It is the perfect disguise. It is important we bring her back as soon as we can."

"The sooner we can find her, the sooner we can punish her."

"Not just that." Ileana said grabbing his hands. She looked at Ralph and waited for him to meet her gaze, "Her uncle Enos left her with something important in his will. We need to make sure she never receives it."

"What is it?"

"It is the reason she was chosen for this mission." She sighed, "I wish I could have made a different choice in the past. Choosing her has shown to be a mistake. Now our people will live in fear. Angelus may feel the need to punish those who have cursed him with a soul. Bring her back to me so we can deal with the traitor that brings this fear to our people. We will torture her for the pain she brings to us."

* * *

 ***Jenny***

The moment I knew he was about to lunge at me I flailed my legs up kicking the syringe out of his hand and knocking his jaw. He fell back a couple of steps but not enough to be pushed over. He regained his balance and was about to lunge for me again.

But he was stopped when Rupert punched his face hard.

I jumped out of bed where Ralph had landed and Rupert firmly held him down by his neck. Ralph struggled under his grip.

I scrambled quickly to grab the syringe to use as a weapon, if needed. Once I grabbed it from the floor, I held it defensively in my grip.

"Where is your brother?" Rupert demanded.

Ralph looked at Rupert and started laughing under his grip. Rupert wasn't very happy about it and elbowed him in his gut. Ralph groaned in pain.

"Listen to me very closely, I have a slayer that wouldn't mind stopping by if you don't answer me very clearly."

"And I have a syringe."

Ralph looked at me strange. His eyes turning red from his lack of oxygen. _The statement had sounded more threatening in my head._ Rupert continued unfazed by my threat.

"Where is he?!" Shouted much louder in frustration.

Ralph looked back at Rupert and seemed to be an equal mix of angry and terrified.

"Rupert stop! You're going to kill him."

Rupert didn't stop.

"Rupert!"

Ralphs face was fading into a dark shade of purple.

I pushed Rupert, forcing his hands off of Ralph. Ralph began choking and coughing for air.

"Jenny what are you doing?!" Rupert yelled angrily at me, "He was going to use that serum to knock you out and bring you to Romania to be tortured!"

"You almost killed him!" I shouted back at him.

I never saw a pair of green eyes look so angrily at me before. It had frightened me to think that Rupert was okay with killing humans now.

I looked away from him and at the syringe in my hand, "Wait… this was only going to knock me out?"

I turned back to the choking Ralph, still trying to catch some air. He was slowly trying to sit up from the bed but the moment I stabbed the syringe into his neck, he fell unconscious back onto the bed.

"How long do we have?"

"I don't know but we better hurry and tie him up or something." Rupert replied.

"Okay! I am so sorry but the woman at the front desk told me that there was only one vending machine with WhatchamaCallits on the floor above us so I took a little… detour."

Rupert and I looked up at Sanarah as she passed the curtain into the room. She froze looking at the three of us. Ralph with the syringe in his neck, laying on the bed. Rupert with the blanket rolled up tightly in his hands. I was standing out of the bed and hovering over the doctor.

"What the F#$&%*!?"


	8. Chapter 8 - What Other Choice Do We Have

**Chapter 8: What Other Choice Do We Have?**

 ***Jenny***

After having explained everything to Sanarah, she was sitting in the corner of the hospital room and hyperventilating. Rupert had just finished tying the doctor onto the bed with the bulky blanket, and I was trying to wrap my burn back up with the bandages. For some reason, I couldn't figure out the correct way to put on the bandages so I decided to give up halfway through.

"What are we going to do?" The panic was clear in my voice.

"Just remain calm," Rupert instructed, "We will figure something out."

"Rupert we have a doctor of this hospital tied to the bed! I don't even know what we injected into his neck and I have a feeling we are going to get into a lot of trouble for it!"

"Jenny I told you, the serum was just going to knock you unconscious! It's not going to kill him." Rupert was shouting back at me. I could tell he was angry when he took off his glasses and pointed them at me, "I really don't understand your behavior, he tried to kill you!"

"He has other patients!"

"Maybe he was going to kill them too!"

Our fight had been interrupted when we heard footsteps coming into our room. Rupert and I had silenced. Even Sanarah's hyperventilating had halted. Rupert, Sanarah and I looked over at the curtain, separating us from the front half of the room, and we listened closely. It sounded as if another nurse had walked in to check on Lucy. We listened closely to the taps of the footsteps and the rustling of equipment.

If this nurse had just decided to look over to our side of the curtain, she would see everything. We had no way of hiding our crime.

"Oh no." We heard a woman's voice cry out.

The nurse ran out of the room and the three of us looked at each other.

"She knows!" Sanarah breathed.

"That's impossible." Rupert had significantly reduced the volume of his voice, "What could she have seen?"

"What are we going to do?" Sanarah ignored him.

I walked slowly around the corner to take a peek at Lucy. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully in her bed.

"Jenny be careful."

I walked up to her bed and touched her hand. Lucy felt very cold. I looked up at the monitor watching her heartbeats, and it didn't seem to be following a steady pattern. I looked back. Rupert had been standing beside the curtain and watching closely.

We need to wake him up.

"Jenny..."

"No! Rupert, Lucy is going to die."

He said nothing. I pushed past him and went straight to the doctor and Sanarah. Sanarah's eyes were full of tears when she looked up at me.

"How do we wake him up?"

"I was hoping you could tell me," I admitted, "What we injected was more magic than medicine."

Sanarah stared at Ralph.

We heard nurses rush back inside the room. This time there sounded like there was two. I looked back and realized that Rupert was still on the other side of the curtain with Lucy.

"Excuse me." A male voice said.

"Just listen to her heartbeat. Does it sound strange to you?"

A couple of moments of silence before the male voice responded, "Yes. That is weird."

"We need to find Ralph."

"Do you know where he is?"

Rupert spoke up, "No. We have not seen him. We have also been waiting for him. He was going to check on us one more time before we could leave."

"I was told that you left this morning." the male voice responded, "I'm sure it's okay for you to leave now. He gave you the creams she needed correct?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Then you may go. We will call you if we need you to come back."

"I'm going to go look for Ralph." The woman nurse said.

We could hear both footsteps run out of the room. Rupert finally walked back to our side of the curtain. He was looking down and didn't walk much closer. It was clear he wasn't going to be very helpful. I looked back at Sanarah. She was already holding the syringe in her hand. She looked at it carefully.

"I don't have enough time to figure out what's in this." She admitted, "But I think I have a better solution."

She grabbed the blueberry muffin that she had taken away from Rupert earlier. Sanarah quickly moved over to the sink and filled a glass of water.

"What are you doing?" I asked watching her closely.

She stuffed the muffin into the glass of water. The muffin slowly began to fall apart, leaving little specs of crumbs floating in the water.

"I think the muffin is going to work on Ralph the same way it worked on Mr. Giles." Sanarah explained, "The muffin will make him see the vision, and then wake him up when it's over."

She came back and poured a very small amount into Ralph's mouth. When she was sure that enough diluted crumbs of the muffin had made it down his throat, she put the glass back down beside her.

"How long was I asleep?" Rupert asked.

"About ten minutes," Sanarah replied. "But you also ate a lot more than I'm giving Ralph."

"We might not have that long." I looked over at Rupert, "Do you have the rose quartz on you?"

"Um… no..."

"Where is it?"

"I-it's ss-sorta destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Sanarah piped in, "How do you destroy a stone?"

"We don't have time for this," I announced. "How can we help Lucy?"

Everyone was looking at me helplessly. It made me angry. There was something that we should have been able to do. Rupert reached out to touch my shoulder but I backed away.

"'We just have to wait." Sanarah jumped in.

I turned my back on them. My blood began to boil and I could feel them staring at me.

"I saved you twice…" I looked over at Ralph.

"That was fast," Sanarah said in disbelief.

Ralph looked over at me, "You were dead?"

I nodded.

"What did you see?" Sanarah looked intrigued.

"The spell Ileana did, it brought you back to life."

His whole attitude had changed. Ralph was now trying to understand me. He was still staring at me and I couldn't understand the look in his eyes.

 ***Giles***

He was falling in love with her. I could see it in the way he watched her. I was already infuriated with Jenny for continuously putting her life in danger, but this was getting to the point that I wanted to hit something. I walked between them blocking his gaze to her. I began untying him from the bed.

"Lucy needs your help."

He looked up at me, "Are you kidding me?"

"I wish I was."

When his hands were free he began rubbing his wrists, "You were about to kill me and now you trust me?"

"No. I don't trust you. But she does."

"Please." Jenny said from behind me, "Save her."

He looked over my shoulder, I assumed at Jenny, and he slowly got himself off from the bed. He watched all of us, clearly not trusting us, and moved toward Lucy. Jenny was about to follow him behind the curtain but I grabbed her by the wrist, stopping her.

"Lay down." I instructed, "There's nothing else you can do. I'll watch him."

She nodded.

Jenny was beautiful. It would be ridiculous if Ralph didn't notice. She shuffled back into the bed. Her short hospital gown didn't cover the poorly wrapped bandages on her leg. I looked at her body and noticed that she was hardly swollen, although she did carry some bumps on her legs and arms. Sanarah was looking at me watching Jenny and I felt the embarrassing need to look away. I turned and walked over to watch Ralph.

Ralph was holding Lucy's hand and watching the monitor.

"She's very cold," he noted.

He grabbed his stethoscope listening to the unsteady beats of Lucy's new heart.

I watched Ralph as he focused so closely on Lucy.

"Can you help her?"

"She'll be fine."

Soon enough the nurses found their way back into the room and were surprised to find Ralph. But instead of lingering over where he had been, they began assisting him.

 ***Ralph***

After the nurses and I fixed Lucy, I instructed the nurses to check in on her more often. Her new heart was working but we had to watch closely to make sure she didn't develop irregular heart beats. Lucy was still very cold so the nurses brought her more blankets. The Englishman had watched me the whole time this was going on, but stayed out of the way. When Lucy was taken care of, I didn't know what to do next. I walked over to the other side of the curtain with Janna and the red headed girl. They watched me closely. The Englishman was by my side.

"What are we going to do now?"

"That depends on what you are going to do."

I looked at the angry green eyed Englishman and then to Janna laying in her hospital bed.

 _What am I going to do?_

I watched Angelus kill Janna, and I couldn't help but feel that she had already been punished for what she had done to her people. And if our clan had accidently brought her back, then there must be an important cosmic reason for it. If I had to explain this to Ileana, I knew she wouldn't understand. She was so focused on punishing Jenny that I don't think that this would matter to her, but for some reason, all of this new information mattered to me.

"They never told me you died."

"Maybe they didn't know."

It was so much easier to talk to her about this than the Englishman.

"Why did you let Angel lose his soul?"

"We didn't let him!" The Englishman shouted.

"It was an accident." Janna said slowly, "My uncle sent me to watch Angel to make sure his curse still stands. I was supposed to make sure he still suffered, which I thought was just because we thought he was evil. And I was told to keep him away from the Slayer. But it got complicated. When I found out who the slayer was, Angel was already helping her. I thought everything was different when Angel started saving innocents and he even saved my life. He became a huge help to the slayer in fighting demons and I didn't try to stop him. I started to feel bad for him. My uncle never told me about what would break the curse, and when he did, it was too late. If I had known that he could have lost his soul, I would have said something sooner. No, I should have said something sooner, because I was never completely honest. We might have figured it out if I had told you the truth from the beginning."

Halfway through her speech, I could tell she was talking to the Englishman. She was looking at him.

"You mean they never told you what would break the curse?"

She shook her head and looked back at me.

"Do you know why you were chosen for this mission?"

"Because I was the only one from our clan living in the States?!" She said almost sarcastically.

"No." I said softly, recalling my conversation with the elder woman, "She told me there was a reason. Did your Uncle ever give you anything?"

"It's in his will." The Englishman said behind me.

"He never gave me anything," Janna replied, looking at the both of us.

"At least not yet." The Englishman said pacing behind me.

"Did your uncle tell you anything?" I pleaded, hoping for clearer answers.

"Only that it's vengeance that we serve."

It was true. The best of our clan are upgraded to vengeance demons if D'hoffryn finds our work satisfactory. We are D'hoffryn's greatest source of vengeance demons. Even D'hoffryn serves our elder woman. Vengeance runs through our veins. But this was useless information now.

"Is Lucy going to be okay?" Jenna asked breaking the silence.

"Yes. She will be fine." I looked at her, "She will wake up tomorrow. You should probably go home for now."

"Home?" She said shocked. "Is this a trick? You aren't going to take me to the elder woman?"

"To be honest..." I said realizing my own conflict, "I don't know what I'm going to do. It's best you go now before I make up my mind."

The Englishman pushed passed me and quickly grabbed Jenny by the arm pulling her out of the bed. He glared at me.

"If you decide to come looking for her again, I am going to do everything in my power to protect her and I won't hesitate to do whatever it takes."

"I believe you."

Janna kept watching me as the Englishman pushed her out of the room. The redhead with long hair followed behind them. I didn't bother remembering names. I didn't care.

"Wait." I called to them when I noticed the bottles of medicine I had left for her, "You're going to need these."

Everyone looked back at me suspiciously.

"Look if you don't trust me you can grab them at any supermarket."

The redhead grabbed the bottles from my hand. Our hands touched for a slight moment and she looked at me softly. I wasn't sure why she was looking at me so kindly but she seemed to be the only one who wasn't mad at me.

"Go," I instructed.

 ***Jenny***

I could not stop thinking about Ralph. A part of me couldn't understand why he would change his mind just to help me. It could be a trick. The gypsies are not very forgiving people and will punish him for turning on them. It was a huge risk to take. I didn't see the need for everyone to put their lives on the line when there was a simple way to end of all this.

I looked over at Rupert, and he seemed very angry as he drove. We had been fighting all day. We were going to meet Sanarah back at his place after she picked up the medicines for me. Rupert thought it would be best to buy them from the store as Ralph had suggested.

"Rupert..." I spoke softly, "I think I need Ralph to take me to Romania."

"Jenny."

"Look, I know what you are going to say. You want to protect me, but I deserve to be punished. Everything I lied about has hurt everyone in the worst possible way." He tried to interrupt me but I continued over him, "They aren't going to stop looking for me, Rupert! If Ralph doesn't bring me, someone else will. You could get hurt trying to protect me. This could get much worse than it already is. You already have Angelus to worry about, we don't need more. Maybe I could work with the elder woman to restore his soul!"

"Well, we have something they don't."

"What's that?"

"The Slayer."

"Buffy?! Rupert, I'm not involving her in any of this." I shouted back at him. "She's heartbroken about Angel and she may have to kill him. She can't handle anything else right now. In fact, you shouldn't even tell her I'm alive. It will distract her!"

"As Buffy's watcher, I'm telling you she can handle it."

"YOU ARE JUST SO…" I desperately searched for a word to fill the gap, "INTOLERABLE!"

 _Why did I have to sound so English?_

"If you were in Buffy's shoes, and you had to kill me because I was an evil vampire, would you be able to focus on anything else?"

Rupert slammed on the breaks in his car. The seatbelt locked, holding me tightly in my seat as gravity pushed me forward. An angry driver honked his horn at us multiple times as he was forced to drive around us in the intersection. We were blocking his path since Rupert hadn't properly stopped at the stop sign. No other cars were at the intersection and we sat there for a while.

 ***Giles***

I couldn't look at Jenny although I could feel her staring at me. Not only did I realize that she was right, but I also realized what Buffy was going through was much more difficult than I had led myself to believe. If Buffy felt about Angel the way I felt about Jenny, she would never be able to kill him.

Jenny was right. Until we deal with Angelus, we should wait to tell the kids that she was alive. It would be too big of a distraction for Buffy. Plus, Ms. Calendar's death is the biggest event motivating Buffy to kill Angelus. It may be best not to tell her the truth because she will need to keep that motivation to kill him if it comes down to it.

"We can wait to tell them." I finally said, "But there is something else I need you to reconsider."

"What."

"I want you to move in with me."

"You want me to move in with you because you want to protect me or because you want to make sure I don't run away to Romania?" She said, clearly irritated with me.

I took off my glasses sharply, looking down for a moment before turning my head to look into her eyes.

"Because I love you."

"Rupert, I love you too but that is why I have to go!" She cried, "I don't want you to get hurt because of me."

"If you were in my shoes," I said putting my glasses back on my nose, "would you be able to let me go?"

She didn't say anything. Part of me was nervous that I had overestimated her feelings for me and the long silence on her end was starting to frighten me. I didn't wait for her answer and continued driving home.

"I'm just trying to do the right thing. Why is that so hard for you to understand?"

"Because right now you and I disagree about what the right thing is." She finally spoke.

To be honest, we seem to be disagreeing about almost everything. There were moments I could hate this woman as strongly as I could love her. But more than anything she scared me. I knew what hell felt like because it was living in this world without her. It hurt more than I could bear. I was hollow in my empty rooms feeling shuttered and dank. I was truly dead.

"You are not going to Romania." I said forcefully, "And that's final."

She reached out for my hand, holding onto it tightly. We finally arrived at home. I looked over at her before getting out of the car. She was watching our hands.

"I guess I did promise never to leave you again." She whispered to me.

"You did." I reminded her.

She looked up at me and slowly, a wicked smile spread across her lips. "Then I guess it's time for you to show me around our new home."

"You're not going to go to Romania, t-to your family?"

She shook her head, "I guess I could try to curse Angel again. Maybe that would solve both problems. My family won't be trying to punish me and Angelus won't be running around killing people."

"Yes. I-I like that plan m-much better."

I smiled at her.

"You know what, I love it when you stutter. You do it when you're nervous." She grabbed my tie and pulled me close to her. We were close enough for a kiss.

"Why would I be nervous?"

"Because you need me." She whispered into my ear.

I felt the soft caress of her cheek along my face, and her gentle breaths in my ear. I closed my eyes enjoying her touch. She wasn't supposed to be here, but by some miracle she was. I opened my eyes again just to watch her and see her so close to me. I pressed my forehead against hers and tasted her lips.

"I do need you." I breathed, wanting more of her.

A warmth overcame me as she slid her fingers down the tie.

"J-Jenny… m-maybe we s-should go i-inside."

She kept kissing the outline of my jaw as I spoke. "Okay." Was all she said between kisses.

I wanted to get us inside but she was draining me of all power I had to pull away. I wanted her so badly that I could feel myself growing. As she started kissing my neck, I had one moment of clarity. I knew it was my only moment. My hand reached out and honked the horn of the car. The noise jolted me. Jenny seemed almost unphased. Her wet lips pulled away from my neck and she sat back into her seat.

I was so full of passion that any other brain function had dimmed.

"Inside. Now." I breathed.

She didn't say a thing as she turned and moved out of the vehicle. I watched her legs as she stepped out of the car in her short hospital gown. When she closed the door, I sat still for a moment trying to cool down and recover. I took four deep breaths before getting out of the car. I stepped out and walked to her. I led her to my condo and handed her the backpack Sanarah had packed for her.

"You may want to change into some clothes. I'll make some dinner for us."

"You can cook?" She said pleased as I pulled out my keys.

"I can."

"I can't wait to find out what else you can do." She said. Her eyes glimmered and I knew what she was meant.

I couldn't peel my gaze away from her as I pushed the door open and followed her inside.

I hated how much this terrified me.


	9. Chapter 9 - O Soave Fanciulla

**Hey! I've posted two chapters tonight so make sure you read chapter 8 before reading this one!**

 **Don't forget to leave me a review or just say hello!**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: O Soave Fanciulla**

 ***Jenny*  
** I was so excited to finally take a shower, shave and brush my teeth. I desperately needed one from the moment I woke up in my grave. I remembered how terrified I was with the dirt falling on my face. I shuddered thinking about it. I decided to focus on where I was now.

I didn't want to say anything to Rupert but this place had looked as if it had been abandoned for a couple weeks. Clothes had been tossed everywhere. I had even noticed dried flower petals on the floor. The place reeked of booze and bad food. The moment Rupert and I had walked in, he was flustered and rushed me upstairs to settle in. I assumed he wanted time to clean up, so I decided to take my time.

I stepped out of the shower and looked through the bag of clothes Sanarah had brought for me. I quickly noticed a theme. Everything was short, flowy and amorous. She must have planned this. Not that I really minded, I loved to see him squirm. I really did.

I smiled sliding into a long flowy black dress. The dress had a deep v-neck that stopped about an inch above my navel. Very thin straps held the dress up above my shoulders and crossed behind my back. A sheer black fabric gave another layer to the bottom half of the dress. The black fabric beneath the sheer covering had a long slit high up my right side, showing off my good leg.

I've been told I have the body of a dancer. Maybe I was in a different life.

When I saw that Sanarah had also stashed me some jewelry and basic make-up, I realized I had just made a new best friend. I reshaped my eyebrows, applied mascara and lightly used eyeliner around my eyes. A wide smile stretched across my face after I had applied the finishing touch, a bright red lipstick. Her jewelry was also very simple. I accessorized my outfit with a metallic gold cuff bracelet and matching choker. I didn't have any shoes for my new outfit but I was satisfied with being barefoot. I put a very small ring on my index toe. I hadn't dressed up this much in a long time. However, I also had plans to dress down tonight, which I also haven't done since the Burning Man festival last summer. I felt beautiful tonight, and I had to remember to thank Sanarah the moment I saw her.

I splashed myself with some perfume before making my grand entrance into the living room.

The moment I had stepped out of the upstairs bathroom, the wonderful smell of food had overwhelmed me. I began salivating. It had completely vacated the smell that the condo previously held. I looked over at his bedroom and it had been cleaned, his bed made. Everything in this condo seemed to be a different shade of mismatched green, which I assumed might be his favorite color. Books were everywhere. Where there wasn't wall, there were shelves. I slowly made my way down the stairs and could see that the stairs and living room had also been swept and cleaned.

Before I reached the bottom step, there had been a knock on the door. I froze, forgetting that Sanarah was coming back tonight with my medicine. I suddenly felt completely overdressed for the company. Rupert had made his way to the front door, and I listened.

"Sanarah!" He greeted her cheerfully, "Come in. I was hoping you could join us for dinner?"

"Wow Mr. Giles, I think this is the happiest I've ever seen you."

I slowly continued my path down the stairs until I could see them both in the doorway. Sanarah handed Rupert a brown paper bag.

"I'd love to stay but I think tonight should be just you and Ms. Calendar." She looked over Rupert's shoulder and saw me. I mouthed thank you to her as clearly as I could. She smiled in return, "Looks like you two are going to have a very special night."

"A-are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Rupert took the paper bag from Sanarah.

"I can't thank you enough, Sanarah, for everything you have done."

"Don't mention it. I'll be back tomorrow in case we decide we want to go check on Lucy."

"I think Jenny would love that."

"Goodnight."

"Yes, Goodnight."

Rupert closed the door and flipped a kitchen towel over his shoulder. He kept his head down as he shuffled his hand through the brown bag.

"What...?"

He pulled a small square packaged condom from the bag. The moment he recognized what it was, he noticed me standing in front of him. The brown bag slid from his hand and made a thud once it hit the rug beneath him. The two medicines fell out and rolled around the floor. His green eyes stared at me. He still held the condom in his other hand. It took a long pause before he could react. He quickly hid the condom in his back pocket.

"Hi." I smiled watching him stumble, "What are you making for dinner?"

"Hm?" He said, clearly not listening as his eyes were focused on my chest.

He had never seen me so dressed up before. "For dinner… Rupert."

"Oh!" He closed his eyes and turned to go back into his kitchen. He kept his gaze down as he spoke. "Well, it's funny actually, I haven't been home for a while so I didn't have much here to cook. So I'm actually just cooking some meat and hoping that I can think of something to put together."

"Let me help!" I said excitedly, loving the challenge.

"N-no, a-actually it would be better if you-"

He was interrupted when I bent over to open the fridge.

"You have some tortillas, tomatoes, and lettuce! This wasn't a challenge at all." I admitted disappointed.

"What can we make with that?"

"Tacos?" I looked over at Rupert curiously, "Seriously Rupert, you need to get out more. Here, just cut these up." I handed the tomatoes and lettuce over to him. He took them from me, grabbed a large knife from a small shelf, and began cutting the tomatoes. "Hey, at least we finally get that Mexican food you promised me."

"Well, I hadn't promised I would make it." He said wryly.

"We will get some real Mexican food soon. But tonight let's work with what we got. No… Rupert dice the tomatoes. Dice them."

"Y-you look great Jenny." He said without looking over at me as I began to cut the lettuce.

"Thanks. I really owe Sanarah for this!" Rupert continued dicing the tomatoes in silence. He wouldn't even glance at me, "Rupert is something wrong?"

"No."

"Then why won't you look at me?"

He slowly put his knife down and took a deep breath. "Jenny I've been busy with the Watcher's Council for years. It's been a long time since I..." he stopped. But he didn't need to continue, I knew what he meant.

"Are you scared?"

"Very."

"Well, we don't have to do anything tonight. We can take it slow..." Rupert softly kissed my forehead.

I continued cutting the lettuce as he put his diced tomatoes into a bowl and walked around the Island to put the bowl on the counter.

"I'm going to need help rubbing tonight."

He almost tripped as he slammed the bowl onto the counter, catching himself. He looked at me with the largest eyes. I smiled at him, "The medicine." I reminded him, "Doctor said I need it all over."

"Y-yes o-of course. I-I'd love to." He put his kitchen towel down from his shoulder onto the counter and looked down nervously, "W-where d-do you need me to rub?"

"Well, they bit me all over." I began putting the lettuce into a bowl, as Rupert had and walked around the island to also place it on the counter. I continued to taunt him when I stood next to him, "I mean look at me. From my ankles to my knees, to my thighs." I put my leg through the slit of the dress, and his stare was attending to my newly exposed skin. I continued, "My arms, my neck, my back, between my breasts. I'm really counting on you to get it all for me and everything in between."

"I-I'll be very thorough." He assured me, looking down again. He walked passed me and back into the kitchen. "We can get started after dinner." I turned around to see him again in the kitchen. He appeared as if he had a brilliant idea.

 ***Giles***  
I realized that the only way to beat her at this game was to taunt her back.

"Sounds like you'll have to strip down to your underwear in order for me to be VERY thorough."

I watched her carefully.

"Oh, Sanarah didn't pack me any underwear."

I burned my hand on the stove. I hadn't realized that I had leaned into it. She held in a snicker, and I could see it clearly in her expression.

"Well, my ingredients are ready. Are you?" She said hiding her smile.

"Yes!" I said still in pain from the stove top, "My meat is ready."

"Oh really." she purred.

"Damn! I-I-I mean for the tacos."

I couldn't handle this anymore. Rupert Giles was so bad at trying to seduce women. But there was one part of me that wasn't. Ripper was great. At this point, I didn't know what else to do and for one moment I didn't want to be a bumbling idiot in front of Jenny Calendar. What would Ripper do?

 ***Jenny***  
He turned off the stove and for a moment I started to feel bad. He did seem like I had pushed too far and gotten really mad. If he really needed to go slow, I should respect his wishes. I watched him carefully as he turned off the stove. Trying to read him right now was rather difficult.

He walked out of the kitchen. "Forget it."

His tone was angry.

"Rupert I'm sorry. Let's just eat dinner. I'll stop, I promise."

"You better not." He demanded. He moved so close that there was no space between our bodies. He pressed his forehead against mine. One hand held my chin and the other had moved through the slit of my dress and had a firm grip on my ass. "I'm just getting started."

My body became numb with excitement. I couldn't wait for him to touch me everywhere. I couldn't wait to explore his every squirm. He kissed me roughly. Something bothered me about this. He wasn't himself. He noticed my hesitation and pulled his lips away from mine.

"What's wrong? Don't you want to have sex?"

I shook my head. He tilted his head in confusion.

"I want to make love."

Rupert understood. His expression softened, and his hand fell from my dress. He bent down and grabbed the medicines.

"I'll meet you upstairs." He instructed.

"But what about dinner?"

"Nothing that my meat and a bottle of bourbon can't cure." He said with a sweet smile on his lips.

"Rupert Giles." I said walking up the stairs, "You sure know how to cook me a good meal."

When I reached the top of the stairs, I knew I didn't have a lot of time until he arrived. I noticed the candles around the room, so I rubbed my hands together and opened my palms, breathing into them. This breathed life into every candle in the room, a trick I learned in college. I noticed the record player next to his bed. I didn't recognize the record or the names on the record. It read,

 _O Soave Fanciulla From "La Boheme"  
Written by Giacomo Puccini  
Performed by Jonathan Welch and Luba Orgonasova  
Courtesy of Naxos Recordings. _

I decided Rupert was into it, considering he owned it. I flipped the on the switch of the record player, and the music sounded very operatic. I turned around and saw Rupert standing at the top of the steps holding a bottle of bourbon. He smiled endearingly at me. He admired the candles around us as I turned off the lights. The glow from the candles kept the room dimly lit. The sounds from the record began to swell, getting louder all around us. I looked over at Rupert and something about him had changed as he was standing there.

He looked petrified. The bottle of bourbon in his hand had crashed onto the ground. Shattered glass had exploded all around his feet. And the bourbon created a running puddle dripping down the stairs.

"Jenny." He sounded breathless.

He turned the light switch back on and ran over to his record player. He flipped the switch off, opened the cover and grabbed the record from inside. He threw it hard against the floor and it shattered along with the glass. He looked at me with wide eyes and grabbed me in the tightest hug.

"Jenny!"

"Rupert what is going on?!" I was terrified. I didn't know what to think. It was as if he had suddenly gone crazy.

"This is how I lost you."

"What?" I finally hugged him back, stroking the back of his head.

"I'm sorry Jenny, I had a flashback." He sat down on the side of the bed, and I followed him, watching him closely. "I-I… I don't want to think about it. Did I hurt you? Are you okay?"

"That's okay Rupert." I rubbed his side, "I'm here. I survived. But the bourbon didn't make it."

"I have another on the bookshelf." He said unphased.

"Alright, Rupert," I said standing from the bed. "You relax. I'll be back."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm grabbing us some dinner and another bottle of bourbon. We can eat in bed."

"But you wanted to have sex."

I playfully rolled my eyes at him, "It's not my first cold shower with you, England. I can wait."

"I-It's not?!"

I winked back at him.

I carefully maneuvered around the broken shatters on the floor and was about to head downstairs before Rupert called out to me, "Jenny, your ass, it felt great."

"I know."

We spent the rest of the night in bed laughing for no reason while sipping our bourbon and eating our leftover tacos. I had never felt so safe in my entire life. I've never felt so at home. We left the mess on the floor to clean for tomorrow, and I decided to sleep in the dress since Sanarah didn't leave me much in the area of pajamas. But, I'm sure that was on purpose.

"I'm going to have to make you a key," Rupert said gleefully.

"Until then you'll just have to keep the door unlocked." I joked.

He kissed my forehead.

I fell asleep in his arms. Our hands never disconnected.


End file.
